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THE OBSTINATE 
LADY. Sy iV>E^ 3Yprrh 

Jluthor of “ The tNioffow Strait,” “ Brown 
JImber,” “ The Fond Fugitives,” etc. 



BREVfTAUfO’S 
V<CEW YORK 



PRINTED IN great BRITAIN 



CV^ 

CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER .... I 

CHAPTER II 

MARLING PARK I3 

CHAPTER III 

TRISTRAM’S YARN 26 

CHAPTER IV 

THE YARN CONCLUDED 38 

CHAPTER V 

kitty’s holiday 51 

CHAPTER VI 

SIDNEY’S SUCCESSES 64 

CHAPTER VII 

A REBUFF AND A REVELATION ... 77 

CHAPTER VIII 

SPOKES IN THE WHEEL QO 

V 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER IX 

PAOB 

A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER . . . IO3 

CHAPTER X 

THE TRAITOR JUDGED II7 

CHAPTER XI 

BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND . . . I29 

CHAPTER XII 

THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE .... 142 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE REWARD OF VALOUR .... 155 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED . . . 167 

CHAPTER XV 

THE PLOTTERS I79 

CHAPTER XVI 

DELIVERANCE I9I 

CHAPTER XVII 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


203 


CONTENTS 


vii 

CHAPTER XVIII 

PAOB 

DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 2l6 

CHAPTER XIX 

A WILL AND A WAY 228 

CHAPTER XX 

QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS . . . 24I 

CHAPTER XXI 

A HIT AND A MISS ...... 254 

CHAPTER XXII 

ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY . . . „ 268 

CHAPTER XXIII 

SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS . . . 280 

CHAPTER XXIV 


DE MORTUIS 


293 


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THE OBSTINATE LADY 


CHAPTER I 

A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER 

** It has come to be intolerable,” said Mrs. Maddison 
in her low, composed voice ; I think he means it to 
be intolerable. You know something of what I have 
had to bear, you agree that it has been worse than any- 
thing that I could have been asked or expected to bear ; 
yet you suggest no remedy, except the one which, as 
I have told you again and again, is out of the question 
for me.” 

'' It is the only remedy,” answered her companion. 

“ But if I refuse it ? ” 

Tristram Rolfe, stroking his closely trimmed beard 
and gazing pensively at the lady who sat facing him 
with her back to the light, had no immediate rejoinder 
for her. On that warm summer afternoon the windows 
were wide open and the outside blinds had been lowered, 
shutting out the prospect of Eaton Square ; but every 
now and then, as a puff of breeze lifted them, rays 
from the westering sun caught Mrs. Maddison 's 
abundant fair hair and converted it into a shimmering 
gold frame for her pale face. Any stranger, on a first 
I 


2 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


survey of her, must have pronounced her charming, 
would probably have conjectured that she was as good 
as she was pretty and would with equal probability have 
gathered from the droop of her lips that, despite the 
evidences of wealth which surrounded her — ^the spacious 
drawing-room, so tastefully adorned, and the banks of 
cut flowers which filled the air with their fragrance — 
she was not a happy woman. Had he chanced to be, 
as Tristram Rolfe was, a practised physiognomist, he 
might further have divined that she was a gently 
obstinate one. Obstinate in truth she was, and 
nobody was better aware of that than her faithful 
friend and counsellor ; although acquaintance with 
her defects had never lessened in the smallest degree 
his inveterate (and altogether hopeless) adoration of 
her. 

“ I think I can understand your feeling,” he said at 
length. ” You shrink from the odious publicity of the 
Divorce Court ; you would hate to stand up and be 
cross-examined by some brute of a barrister who would 
do his utmost to confuse and confute you. I daresay 
there are many wives who for some such reasons go 
on enduring the intolerable. But isn’t it, after all, 
worth while ”... 

” You don’t understand in the least,” interrupted 
Mrs. Maddison, ” I should have thought that you 
would — ^you, who are a novelist and a playwright and 
who have explored and exploited human nature to such 
purpose in the pursuit of your art. To my father 
and mother and the rest of them the affair is quite 
simple. ' You are afflicted with a perfectly impossible 
husband,’ they say ; ‘ he has given you every conceiv- 


A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER 


3 


able right to rid yourself of him. Divorce him and be 
free.’ Yes, if liberty were what I wanted ; but I am 
not asking for that. In a certain sense I have liberty 
already. Jack, as he is fond of reminding me, allows 
me to go my own way and makes the way as smooth 
for me as money and indifference can make it. In 
return, he claims the disgusting life which he leads and 
which doesn’t disgust him. I might consent to that, 
but it seems as if nothing short of insulting me in the 
presence of witnesses would satisfy him. He uses 
language to me before the servants which a coster- 
monger would be ashamed to address to his wife ; I 
dread showing myself in the Park or at the theatre or 
in any public place lest I should meet him in company 
which obliges me to look the other way. And though 
I turn my back, I know he is leering at me behind it 
and chuckling. It is a perpetual and deliberate 
persecution ! ” 

Rolfe frowned distressfully. “It is,” he assented. 
“ That is why I can only entreat you to put an end 
to it.” 

“ I will never accept the position of a divorced 
woman,” said Mrs. Maddison decisively. 

It would have been vain to represent to her that an 
outraged wife who has been driven to seek the release 
to which the law entitles her is not a divorced woman 
in any dishonouring acceptation of the term. Rolfe, 
who had told her this times and again, forbore to vex 
her by reiteration. He was there to give her the best 
advice that he could ; but what advice was there to 
offer her, save that she should break off all relations 
with an incorrigible sot and libertine who combined in 


4 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

the strangest manner the qualities of good nature and 
malignity ? 

“lam helpless ! “ he sighed. “ What is it that you 
wish me to do ? To speak to Jack ? “ 

She made a sign of assent. “ Yes, that is what I 
wish. If he will listen to anybody, he will listen to 
you. All I require is that he shall control himself and 
behave with some outward show of decency. Surely 
that isn’t a great deal to ask ! “ 

“ Only it is more than he will concede.” 

“ How can you tell if you won’t even try to find 
out ? Oh, I know you are most unwilling to make the 
attempt, and I can’t think why. It is impossible to 
suppose that you are afraid of Jack ; you have proved 
that you are brave by fighting for your country and 
being wounded. Nobody could doubt your courage, 
and Jack is — ^what he is. Yet you seem to be somehow 
in awe of him.” 

“ I believe I have the average share of physical 
courage,” answered Rolfe ; “ as to the moral variety 
I am not so sure. I am not afraid of Jack's knocking 
me down ; but there are other possibilities. . . , 
Your bidding shall be done, though, if you make a 
point of it.” 

“ I can’t press you to do a thing that you dislike so 
much,” returned Mrs. Maddison rather resentfully. 
“ Let us say no more about it, then.” 

She was sometimes upon the verge of quarrelling 
with this trusty friend of hers, whose patience was 
inexhaustible and who was certain to yield to pressure 
from her, whether she professed to renounce it or not. 
He was a man of something over thirty, but looked 


A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER 


5 


more than his age, his curly brown hair being already 
streaked here and there with grey threads. He showed 
a rather sad and tired face to a world which had done 
much to sadden and weary him during his comparatively 
brief progress through it. However, his features were 
illumined by a bright smile as he declared : 

Of course you shall be obeyed ; I can but fail.’' 

“ Thank you,” she answered in a changed and 
grateful voice ; it is good of you.” And then — 

Are you going down to Marling for the week-end ? ” 
Yes ; aren’t you ? ” 

She shook her head. “ I have cried off this time. 
I am so tired of being told in endearing terms that I 
am an unreasonable idiot ! Besides, Jack is out of 
sorts again.” 

It was one of Mrs. Maddison’s somewhat numerous 
incongruities that whenever her detestable husband 
was unwell — as his intemperate habits often made 
him — she considered it necessary to remain at hand, 
in case he should require nursing. He never did re- 
quire anything of the sort, nor, if he had, would he 
have been likely to apply to her ; still duty is duty. 
Her friend’s duty, or something which had an equiva- 
lent force for him, was not going to be pleasant and 
was assured in advance of futility. The sooner it 
was discharged the better, he thought. He rose 
presently, saying : 

I suppose I shall find Jack downstairs ? ” 

She nodded, “ He hasn’t left the house all day. 
Be firm with him,” she added, as a final injunction ; 
“ don’t let him laugh it off. He must be made to see 
that things can’t go on as they are.’' 


6 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


To make Jack Maddison see that there was any need 
for a change in his general conduct would be about as 
easy as prevailing upon a burglar to abandon burglary 
on high moral grounds. Tristram Rolfe, committed 
to this inept undertaking, descended the broad stair- 
case, wincing slightly, (for he had brought back 
rheumatism as well as a troublesome wound from the 
trenches) and had reached the first landing when Anne 
Pritchard stepped forth through a door leading to the 
servants’ part of the house to intercept him. Anne 
Pritchard, who had been Blanche Maddison's nurse and 
was now her maid, was a grey-headed woman with a 
determined mouth. Respectable and respected rather 
than respectful, she was a privileged member of the 
establishment and did not scruple to waylay a visitor 
whom she had known from his youth up. 

Oh, Mr. Rolfe,” said she, “ could I have one word * 
with you, pleasfe ? ” 

It was not in one but in a hurried volume of words 
that Anne proclaimed very much what her patient 
hearer had just been told. It had come to this, she 
declared, that there was no putting up with it any 
longer. No, not if you was a saint and an angel — 
and the Lord he knew that her dear mistress was 
both ! — ^you couldn’t stand it. Nor yet she didn’t 
ought to stand it. “ If you was to hear the way he 
speaks to her, sir, ’twould make your blood boil — for 
as cold as you be ! No, if you’ll excuse me interrupting 
you, sir, ’tain’t no manner of good to talk to her about 
divorce, for divorce him she won’t. But it’s a sin and 
a shame that he should be let to treat her the way 
he does.” 


A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER 7 

I think it is, Anne,” Rolfe assented ; “ but will 
you tell me what I can do ? ” 

” If I was a gentleman,” old Anne replied, ” I 
shouldn’t want nobody to tell me what to do. My 
stick ’d have been laid acrost his back long before now, 
that it would ! ” 

” There are several objections to such a remedy, if it 
can be called a remedy,” said Rolfe, smiling. ” I shall 
have to depend upon my tongue for a weapon.” 

He did not anticipate that he would be able to effect 
much by means of verbal castigation ; nor did Anne, 
who observed — ^perhaps as an incentive to more virile 
measures — 

” He’s a dirty coward, you know, sir.” 

Yes, Rolfe knew that, amongst other things. He 
knew that Jack Maddison, despite blustering assertions 
of eagerness to proceed to the front and slay Germans, 
had taken care to obtain a prohibitory medical certifi- 
cate ; he likewise knew that Jack, with whom, for 
more reasons than one, he did not wish to fall out, was 
unacquainted with shame and had a gusty temper. 
Still the promise given to Blanche had to be kept. He 
tapped with his knuckles at a door on the ground floor 
and, having been loudly bidden to come in, entered 
the room which was known as Mr. Maddison ’s study, 
though nothing was ever studied there except the 
sporting papers and the ease of the occupant. Veiled 
in a blue cloud of cigar-smoke was the huge, semi- 
recumbent bulk of Jack Maddison, a man who had the 
physique of a prize-fighter and might have had the 
strength of one, had he not for years done all that in 
him lay to wreck a magnificent constitution. His 


8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


square head was set firmly upon a great red neck above 
a pair of massive shoulders ; but his waistcoat bulged 
unhealthily and he had acquired a drunkard’s mottled 
skin. 

Hullo, old Tristie ! he called out. ** Been 
colloguing with the missus, as usual ? Sit down and 
have a drink.” 

Rolfe accepted the first invitation, tacitly declined 
the second and asked, '' How are you ? ” 

Beas’ly seedy,” answered the other in a thick 
voice. Aches and pains all over my body. Can’t 
think what the devil’s wrong with me ! ” 

” If you don’t know,” remarked his visitor, ” nobody 
does. But I take it that, as a matter of fact, every- 
body does.” 

''Oh, for God’s sake,” bawled Maddison, ''don’t 
start preaching ! I know every blessed word of what 
you aren’t going to say. Brought this upon myself, 
digging my own grave, never have any health until I 
turn over a new leaf, and all the rest of it. Doesn’t the 
doctor rub that into me until I have to threaten to 
kick him ? Quite right, both of you, only you’re a bit 
too late in the day, you see. You won’t make a 
reformed character of me ; so you needn’t worry.” 

" Jack,” said his discouraged mentor rather sadly, 
" why are you such an infernal blackguard ? ” 

Jack did not seem to mind being called an infernal 
blackguard. '' Sure I can’t tell you, old man,” he 
replied, laughing goodhumouredly enough. " Built 
that way, I should say. Don’t come jawing to me 
about morality, because I don’t believe in it. Keep 
that sort of thing for your readers and admirers. I’ve 


A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER 


9 


no doubt your books are full of the noblest sentiments, 
though I never could get through a page of them 
myself/’ 

Certainly he did not look a promising subject for a 
lecture on morality in the abstract ; but a lecture upon 
his personal disregard of its claims was imperative all 
the same. 

“ Perhaps,” Tristram Rolfe began, ” it may be con- 
tended that every man has a right to play the devil 
with himself if he chooses. Of course he hasn’t, because 
civilised beings live in community and no individual 
can break the rules without being more or less of a 
nuisance to his neighbours. But even if that view were 
admissible in the case of a bachelor, it obviously 
couldn’t apply to a married man.” 

Oh, that’s it, is it ? ” returned the accused in a 
changed tone of voice. ” Now look here, my boy, 
I’m not going to have my domestic affairs interfered 
with by you or anybody else ; that’s flat. You’ve 
never done such a thing before and I’ll thank you not 
to do it again.” 

'' I have never done such a thing before,” Rolfe 
assented, ” but I mean to do it now, whether you forbid 
me or not. Somebody must do it. There are limits 
even to Mrs. Maddison’s astonishing forbearance.” 

” Did she put you up to this ? ” Jack inquired, with 
a scowl. 

” Yes,” answered Rolfe, after a moment of hesita- 
tion, ” she did. She wishes me to make it clear to you 
that, whatever your other conduct may be, you are to 
cease humiliating her in public. I presume you are 
aware that she could divorce you.” 


10 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


“ Rather ! Why don’t she do it then ? Because she 
jolly well knows on which side her bread is buttered ; 
that’s why. Call me what you please, you can’t say 
that I’m mean. She has clothes, jewels, a free rein, 
a big allowance, everything that a woman can wish 
for.” . . . 

” Except the very small allowance of self-respect 
which is indispensable to her and which she is 
denied.” 

” Self-respect ! Damn it, I can’t deny her that, 
and I should say she had about as heavy a stock of 
it as she could conveniently carry. I may have tried 
once or twice to give her a little dose of humiliation, 
as you call it, just to let her see what it felt like ; but 
I’ll be shot if I’ve ever succeeded ! It isn’t such a 
one-sided business as you make out either. You think 
it is because you only see one side of her. Come to 
humiliation, I don’t so very much enjoy having her 
wipe the mud off her boots on my face. Now I’m not 
making excuses for myself; I’m vicious and she’s 
virtuous, that’s granted. But I tell you she’s far and 
away the most aggravating woman I’ve ever come 
across in my life. And I’ve had some experience of 
women, first and last,” Jack concluded, indulging in a 
retrospective chuckle. 

Apparently he had forgotten his refusal to discuss 
the domestic situation ; but that was only typical of 
Jack Maddison. His moods changed with such sudden- 
ness and frequency that you never knew where you were 
with him, and it is probable that he himself did not 
know from one minute to another what he would be at. 
He reverted to his first position when Rolfe decided to 


A RELUCTANT INTERMEDDLER ii 


request as a personal favour that he would desist from 
public manifestations which nothing could justify. 

“ You and I have been pals for a number of years, 
Tristie,'’ said he, and I’d take more from you than I 
would from anybody else ; but you’re getting upon 
dangerous ground this time. Drop it, old man, drop 
it ! You’re free of this house and you make yourself 
pretty well at home here ; that’s right enough. Don’t 
drive me to remind you that, when all’s said and done, 
it’s my house and that even an old friend may find the 
door of it shut in his face one day if he don’t mind 
what he’s about.” 

It was the menace which Jack Maddison’s old friend 
had been expecting and which was to him a really 
formidable one. Nevertheless, he stood to his guns. 

” I can’t promise,” he answered ; ” I’m dead against 
you in this matter. I tell you plainly that I have 
been urging Mrs. Maddison to apply for a divorce. 
She refuses — ^not, of course, for the reasons that you 
mention, still she does refuse — and if I can be of the 
smallest service to her by intermeddling, an inter- 
meddler I shall be. Come, Jack, I know there’s some 
good left in you. Not very much, if one is to be truth- 
ful, but there’s some, and I won’t believe that you’re 
cruel for the mere satisfaction of giving pain.” 

Jack, however, on his side, declined to be bound by 
promises. ” Mightn’t be able to keep ’em,” he ex- 
plained. For the rest, he didn’t want to have a row — 
hated rows. Once more he exhorted his visitor to drop 
the subject and once more he suggested a drink (he 
himself had had several during the colloquy) as a token 
that there was no ill feeling. 


12 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


There was singularly little ill feeling against the man 
in Tristram Rolfe's heart as he walked away towards 
the Chelsea flat where he dwelt. That he would fail 
in his mission had been a foregone conclusion : Jack 
Maddison was sure to say something like what he had 
said. Yet Jack might have said things which he had 
not said. 

Odd that he didn’t,” mused Rolfe. “ No, it isn’t 
odd either ; it comes of his having been bom a gentle- 
man. A coarse, foul-mouthed fellow who, as he says, 
doesn’t ‘ believe in morality ’ and sees no reason 
why he shouldn’t gratify his cravings and instincts ; 
only amongst those instincts there would be certain 
standards, inherited or inculcated, of which most 
likely he isn’t even aware. So one gets these seemingly 
queer amalgams. I wonder how or why Blanche 
aggravates him. Naturally she must show that she 
despises him ; but a less vindictive woman never 
breathed. He admits that he wants to hurt her, and 
I suppose he is annoyed because she doesn’t cry out 
or rail at him. The chances are that if he had a virago 
for a wife, he would fight with her and be defeated by 
her and love her. Oh, she’ll have to divorce him ! 
There’s no imaginable alternative.” 


CHAPTER II 


MARLING PARK 

When Blanche Stanfield’s engagement to young 
Maddison was announced, her relations and friends 
agreed that she was doing extremely well for herself ; 
for in those days the bridegroom-elect was not only 
wealthy, popular and physically superb but had really 
nothing in his record to give pause to careful parents, 
unless it were a rumour that his bachelorhood had been 
what old-fashioned folks used to call rather “wild.” 
Genial, easy-going General Stanfield did not think 
much of that, holding that the traditional effervescence 
of youth is better worked off as a prelude than as a 
sequel to matrimony ; so there was a largely attended 
wedding in the old church of Marling-on-Thames, and 
not for a good many years afterwards did it become 
too flagrant a fact to be denied or ignored that poor 
Blanche was afflicted with one of the very worst of 
husbands. It was perhaps to be regretted that there 
was no offspring of this unhappy alliance. Some people 
thought that if there had been children, it might have 
made a difference ; but by the date at which this narra- 
tive opens nobody thought, or could think, that the 
differences between the pair were to be terminated by 
anything short of a dissolution of their union. The 
General, though averse to scandal, had felt compelled 


14 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


to intimate as much to his daughter ; so, in more 
vehement terms, had Mrs. Stanfield ; while Reggie 
and Kitty, Blanche’s brother and sister, had associated 
themselves warmly with the parental verdict. Thus, 
as the Stanfields were an outspoken clan, the week- 
ends in her old home to which Mrs. Maddison had been 
wont to look forward longingly from Tuesday to 
Saturday lost something of their attraction for her. 

Somebody else, to whom those weekly assemblages 
were at least equally dear, and who was so intimate a 
friend of the family that he ranked as a virtual member 
of it, was more than a little dejected by the prospect of 
their mutilation. Eaton Square, it was true, remained 
open to Tristram Rolfe ; but he was never so happy there, 
nor, what was more to the purpose, was Blanche ever 
so like her former self there, as in the quiet glades 
and shrubberies of Marling Park, where she and he had 
held such long and frequent confabulations without 
wearying for a moment of one another’s company. 
Since, however, he was fairly well inured to dis- 
appointments, he neither fretted unduly over this one 
nor thought of making it an excuse for absenting him- 
self from the customary gathering. 

They will want to know the latest report,” he 
reflected, as he took his place in the train at Pad- 
dington, ” and I shall enjoy a talk with Claude, any- 
how.” 

He had unfolded a newspaper, (which chanced to 
contain a highly appreciative review of Mr. Rolfe’s 
recently published novel), when his ear caught the sound 
of a heavy, irregular footfall on the platform, and he 
muttered, ” Oh, here comes Sidney ! Bother I ” 


MARLING PARK 


15 


Nevertheless, he had a civil greeting for the tall, 
clean-shaven, handsome man who presently appeared 
at the window and nodded to him. Sidney Maddison 
resembled his elder brother in stature and strength, 
but in no other particular. He had considerable abili- 
ties, in addition to his good looks ; he led an irre- 
proachable life, and it was commonly said of him 
that if he had not committed the initial blunder of 
entering the world some twelve months or so too late, 
he would certainly have conferred lustre upon a name 
which had been rendered more notorious than illustrious. 
But, as if the handicap of being a younger son with a 
small income had not been enough, an accident in 
infancy had left his right leg incurably shortened, and 
it may be that the latter misfortune had tended to a 
yet greater extent than the former, (fully alive though 
he was to that), to develop him into the somewhat 
C5mical mortal that' he was. He was a clerk in a 
Government Office, he enjoyed a certain literary 
reputation and he had — as he was perhaps a little too 
fond of asserting — ^no future. He sat down opposite 
Rolfe, pointed with his stick at the newspaper and 
asked : 

“ Been looking at that rotten notice ? ” 

I have only just glanced at it,’' answered Rolfe ; 

it didn’t seem to me to be rot. Have you read it ? ” 

The other signified assent. Corrected the proofs 
too,” said he. 

” You wrote it, then ? I’m sure I’m infinitely 
obliged to you.” 

” I don’t know why you should be. I am honest in 
these matters ; I write what in my poor judgment is 


i6 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


the truth, and you don’t need to be told that I am one 
of your staunchest admirers. Consequently, when I 
am given a book of yours to review, the result has to be 
a tame, laudatory article. Much good may this one 
do you ! ” 

“ Oh, it does me good,” Rolfe declared, ” it does me 
good. Not, of course, in the way of increasing my 
royalties, because the British public has definitely 
made up its mind that it can’t be bored with me, but 
you are a very competent critic, and praise from you 
sets me on better terms with myself.” 

” You do the same for me when you call me com- 
petent,” Sidney Maddison graciously responded. ” It 
is most unlikely that you will ever have to complain of 
me as a critic of fiction. Glad I don’t belong to the 
dramatic variety of the species.” 

Tristram Rolfe winced perceptibly and seemed 
desirous of changing the subject. '' What do you think 
of Claude Hadow’s poems ? ” he inquired. 

” Has he written any ? I have come across some 
verse of his in magazines. Not bad of its kind.” 

” That boy has genius,” Rolfe boldly affirmed. 

Sidney Maddison ’s eyebrows were lifted. “ Oh, 
les grands mots ! No, my dear Rolfe, your young friend 
has originality and a sort of reckless exuberance of 
diction. He may prove himself a poet when he finds 
his feet, but he doesn’t strike me as having found them 
yet in a technical sense. Meanwhile, it would do him no 
harm to bestow a little more attention upon prosody.” 

As this could not be disputed, Rolfe made no rejoinder 
and resumed the perusal of his neighbour’s article, 
which was excellently written. Owing to his deft 


MARLING PARK 


17 

and polished style, Sidney Maddison was always 
pleasant to read, if seldom pleasant to converse with. 
The latter did not speak again until the train, speeding 
over a sunlit landscape, was nearing the destination for 
which he and his companion were bound, when he 
asked : 

Why haven’t we the pleasure of seeing Blanche 
to-day ? ” 

Rolfe looked up from his paper to reply : ** Jack 
isn’t very well. She said she didn’t like to leave him.” 

Really ? I should have thought that she would 
like nothing better than to leave him, but women are 
unaccountable beings. It would never surprise me to 
hear that she had left him precipitately by being thrown 
out of the window into the area. I doubt whether he 
is safe when he is what you euphemistically describe 
as not very well.” 

“ I don’t think,” answered Rolfe, with a slight frown, 
” that there is any such danger. So far as I know, 
he is not threatened with D.T., if that is what you 
mean.” 

That was what Sidney meant. It may even have 
been what Sidney hoped for, seeing that he was his 
brother’s next of kin ; but he only shrugged his 
shoulders, laughed and remarked : 

” No doubt, if you consider that Blanche has nothing 
to fear, we may all set our minds at rest.” 

A waggonette conveyed General Stanfield's guests 
from the wayside station to Marling Park, a substantial 
red-brick mansion, standing on a wooded height above 
the glittering river towards which its green lawns and 
many-hued flower-borders sloped. The drone of the 

2 


i8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


luncheon-gong could be heard as far off as the lodge, 
and so little was ceremony deemed requisite in the case 
of the new arrivals that the family party was already 
at table when they were shown into the dining-room. 
Their host, a spruce old gentleman with a cream- 
coloured moustache, got up to welcome them ; Mrs. 
Stanfield, small, dapper, dark-eyed, juvenile of mien 
for her years, extended her right hand to Tristram and 
her left to Sidney without rising ; Reggie, a sunburnt, 
khaki-clad youth who had been given a week’s leave 
from the front, and pretty, golden-haired Kitty, who 
wore a white cap and a blue uniform with brass buttons, 
were cordial in their greetings. 

Nobody else was staying in the house, except Claude 
Hadow, the young soldier poet to whom allusion, eulo- 
gistic and disparaging, had been made in the train. 
With his delicate, refined features and the sheaf of 
straight black hair which, although brushed back from 
his forehead, had a trick of tumbling over his luminous 
grey eyes, he looked more like a poet than a soldier ; 
yet he had fought as well as his neighbours until he had 
perforce been invalided home. Home in the more 
particular meaning of the term he had none, his nearest 
surviving relatives being a grumpy old uncle and aunt 
who resided in the north of England and who had 
signified their entire willingness to delegate the care of 
a bad case of shell-shock to hands more capable than 
theirs. His friend and brother-officer Reggie Stanfield 
had decided that Marling was the very place for him, 
and Reggie’s kindly, hospitable parents had been as 
glad as they said they were to offer the poor lad a haven 
of rest. They soon grew attached to him and he to 


MARLING PARK 


19 


them ; but his chief ally was Tristram Rolfe, for whose 
rather difficult and intricate work he had an immense 
respect. Rolfe, always grateful for and surprised at 
quick comprehension on the part of any reader, had 
been further attracted by some specimens of young 
Hadow’s verse which had been diffidently submitted 
to him, and in this way there had sprung up between 
the two an intimacy unhindered by the disparity in 
their respective ages. The older man seated himself 
beside the younger at the luncheon-table, but had only 
spoken a few words to him when his attention was 
claimed by Mrs. Stanfield, who asked : 

When are you going to give us another theatre 
treat, Tristram ? I can't assimilate your books without 
acute indigestion, you know, but I simply adore ur 
plays." 

You won’t adore the next one," Rolfe predicted. 
“ Allingham, with tears in his eyes, consents to produce 
it, though he vows that if it had come from anybody 
but me, he wouldn’t have touched the thing. It’s 
rather in the nature of an experiment." 

Ah," murmured Sidney Maddison, beware of 
experiments ! In all the world there is no more un- 
promising subject for experiments than the public of 
this country." 

The public of this country," retorted Mrs. Stanfield, 
who did not like Sidney, “ will swallow whatever 
Tristram thinks fit to prescribe for it." 

"Once perhaps," the critic agreed; "but it will 
make ugly faces over an unwonted dose and may begin 
to think of changing its doctor. That’s a dangerous 
condition of mind to excite in the patient." 


20 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


If there be — ^it has been stated that there is — a 
certain interest and pleasure in exciting dangerous con- 
ditions of mind, Sidney should have been familiar with 
the enjoyment of it ; for he had a knack of making 
quiet, ostensibly unprovocative speeches which seldom 
failed to put his hearers’ backs up. He displayed this 
with respect to the relations of his brother and his 
sister-in-law, which were unreservedly discussed ; he 
displayed it yet more conspicuously when the desultory 
conversation drifted to the inevitable topic of the 
European conflict. 

You talk of what you are going to do when you 
have beaten the enemy,” he remarked ; you talk of 
the dreadful things that would happen if, by an im- 
possibility, Germany were to win the war. How 
strange that it shouldn’t have dawned upon any one 
of you, politicians, journalists or private individuals, 
that Germany has won the war ! ” 

This was too much for Reggie, who ejaculated, 
Tosh ! ” 

'' You can have peace of a not too disadvantageous 
kind,” Sidney went on. As the Germans want peace 
badly, they will be ready to grant generous terms, or 
terms which will sound generous enough for the saving 
of your face. But you will never be in a position to 
dictate terms to them, and the sooner you recognise 
that fact the less you will have to pay in lives and 
wealth.” 

” I don’t believe one word of it ! ” cried Mrs. Stan- 
field, ” and I object to your taking up the tone of an 
unconcerned outsider. Aren’t you an Englishman, 
pray ? No Englishman has a right to be so detached.” 


MARLING PARK 


21 


“ I don’t assert my detachment as a right,” Sidney 
rejoined, ” I submit to it because it is thrust upon me. 
I am a cripple and I can’t fight ; I am insignificant and 
I can’t influence opinion. What is left for me but to 
look on, keeping my eyes open and perhaps marvelling 
a little at the ease with which the majority contrive to 
keep theirs shut ? ” 

Kitty came to the rescue of one whose bitter luck had 
often moved her to compassion. ” Everybody has a 
right to say what he thinks is the truth,” she observed ; 
“only it isn’t everybody who has the pluck to 
do it.” 

Although Sidney was scarcely the man to relish 
pity, he may not have suspected such a sentiment as 
the source of this tribute to his sincerity, for which he 
returned thanks in a softened voice. 

” Nor is it everybody,” he remarked, who has the 
charity to cook food for disabled Tommies in broiling 
weather. You go on with it, I suppose ? I don’t ask 
whether you like it, because of course you can’t.” 

” I love it ! ” the girl declared, but had the honesty 
to add, ” Except for occasional spasms of hating it. 
Sometimes I do hunger and thirst — especially thirst — 
for a day off, and I’m to have one on Monday if I’m 
good. ’ ’ 

The hospital to which she had attached herself in a 
culinary capacity being some two miles distant, she 
hajd to start on her return walk thither as soon as she 
had finished her luncheon. Reggie proclaimed his 
intention of escorting her and Sidney asked leave to 
accompany them. 

” It’s a refreshment to listen to our wounded heroes ” 


22 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


said he. ‘'They don’t regard themselves as heroes 
and have only the foggiest notion of what they have 
been wounded for ; but they accept war, with its un- 
pleasant corollaries, just as they obey orders, from a 
feeling that if these things are not unavoidable, they at 
all events can’t do anything to avert them. Which is 
really the only sensible way of looking at the whole 
murderous farce.” 

” Oh,” sighed Mrs. Stanfield, after the three had 
left the room, ” why doesn’t the earth open and swallow 
up Sidney Maddison 1 ” 

” Sidney isn’t as sour as he makes himself out,” her 
good-natured husband pleaded. ” He doesn’t mean 
all he says.” 

“ There’s the precedent of Korah, Dathan and 
Abiram, who were accused of taking too much upon 
themselves,” pursued Mrs. Stanfield pensively. ” You 
can’t pretend that it doesn’t apply. But I suppose the 
Higher Criticism has squashed these picturesque 
retributions for ever. It’s a pity.” 

Nobody could charge Mrs. Stanfield with taking too 
much upon herself. The disposition of her guests’ 
time, for instance, she considered to be inalienably 
their affair ; so she made no apology for going about 
her own devices when the General, glancing at his 
watch, announced that he must be off to attend a 
meeting of the local Food Control Committee. Tristram 
and Claude Hadow being thus left to coffee, cigarettes 
and one another, the older man inquired : 

” Why not walking across flowery meadows with 
Miss Kitty ? ” 

“ Well, for one thing, I wasn’t invited,” his junior 


MARLING PARK 


23 


replied “ Besides which, I thought I should like a 
jaw with you. What about letting me punt you up 
the river for an hour or so ? 

Tristram said that would suit him very nicely. 

And how are you ? he asked. 

Perfectly well — so well that I’m ashamed of being 
here. But the Medical Board shake their heads at 
me, and they’re right, I know. Every now and then, 
without any reason, or for the most absurd little reason, 
I break down completely and lose all control. Some- 
times I sit in my room, crying like a baby, for half an 
hour. It’s rather awful, isn’t it ? ” 

There are thousands of you like that,” said Tris- 
tram. ” It’s purely physical ; it will pass. We won’t 
talk about it.” 

It was doubtless wiser not to dwell upon such 
distressing symptoms. That the victim, far too sensi- 
tive to dream of mentioning them to anyone else, 
should not have minded saying as much as he had 
done gave the measure of his confidence in a friend 
who entirely understood him. To be sure, he was not 
very hard to understand. Not nearly as hard as 
his poetry, which was prone to leave rather more 
than it should have done to the intelligent interpreta- 
tion of the reader. Tristram warned him against this 
modern tendency, born of a somewhat exaggerated 
dread of the obvious, and insisted that lucidity is an 
essential factor in all good art. 

” Quite true,” the young poet admitted. ” I don’t 
aim at being cryptic or affected ; only, you see. I’ve 
got to scribble down wha comes to me as it comes. 
I simply spoil things when I try to improve upon 


24 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


them. One may use the polishing brush too much, 
don’t you think so ? ” 

‘‘ To whom do you say it ! I preach sound doctrine 
and support it involuntarily by my practice. Just 
because I have yielded to the vice of overpolishing 
until it has enslaved me I am a failure. That’s no 
reason why other people should run into the opposite 
extreme.” 

A failure ? — you ! Aren’t you famous all the 
world over ? ” 

'' Well, my rubbishy plays are, if vogue is to count 
for fame. Oh, I know what you’re going to say ; 
they can’t be absolute rubbish or they wouldn’t have 
such a big success. I’m not so sure ; but, allowing 
them some technical merit, they none the less represent 
for me the deliberate prostitution of my abilities — 
such as my poor abilities are. They have made my 
fortune, those wretched dramas, but they have charged 
me a confoundedly high price for it.” 

The above colloquy took place while the two men 
were strolling down towards the river-bank, where 
there was a boat-house, giving shelter to various skiffs 
and gigs, as well as to a cushioned punt in which 
Tristram proceeded to stretch himself out at full 
length. His companion, who had fallen silent, took 
the punt-pole and manipulated it with skill and vigour 
for some twenty minutes or so until a backwater was 
reached where, under the shade of whispering willows, 
he made his craft fast and began abruptly : 

I say, I wish you wouldn’t speak of your work as 
you did just now. It’s — it’s tragic, you know ! ” 

” It's consistent then,” returned Tristram, with a 


MARLING PARK 


25 


smile. My life since I was a little younger than 
you are now has been a tragedy — ^of a minor kind, if 
you will. It has been pitched in an obstinately minor 
key, at any rate.'’ 

The literary part of it, do you mean ? " 

I meant the whole of it. Shall I be an auto- 
biographical bore, like the Ancient Mariner ? I feel 
rather tempted." 

Claude Hadow squatted in the bottom of the punt, 
clasping his hands round his drawn-up knees. Tell 
me," said he eagerly, “ tell me 1 " 

Would you really like to hear ? It’s a long, long 
yarn." 

“ We’ve got hours before us." 

Tristram did not exact further pressure. Save this 
boy, there was no one living, (Blanche Maddison being, 
from the nature of the case, excluded), with whom he 
could possibly enter upon the subject of his past, 
and at moments he had a longing to disburden his 
soul, were it only for once, to friendly ears. So he 
delivered himself substantially as follows, with some 
natural pauses and interruptions which need not be 
allowed to break the continuity of his narrative. 


CHAPTER III 

TRISTRAM’S YARN 

I SUPPOSE most people feel that the really heart- 
breaking feature of this endless war is the multitude 
of budding lives snatched from us by it. We survivors 
protest valiantly that our hearts are not broken, that 
we are proud of the youngsters, that they died the 
most glorious and enviable of deaths and so forth. 
Something, sincere or forced, has to be said ; but the 
one genuine consolation is that these poor boys, while 
their meagre share of existence lasted, knew what it 
was to be happy and jolly, without having had time 
to make acquaintance with the sorrows and disappoint- 
ments and defeats which years bring to the rest of us. 
In that sense we can call them fortunate, and it is 
very certain that I, for one, should have been highly 
blessed if my earthly pilgrimage had come to an end 
when I was twenty years of age. I should then have 
carried away with me an altogether agreeable and 
grateful memory of this spinning planet. Imagine an 
only son, with excellent health, unhmited pocket- 
money, an indulgent father, plenty of friends, a 
delightful country home and freedom to choose his 
own future. It sounds ideal, doesn’t it ? Yes, the 
adomble and adored being who may be required to 
20 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 


27 

complete the picture was not wanting either. I shall 
come to her presently. 

“My father, Sir William Rolfe, (he had been knighted 
on I forget what festive occasion during his shrievalty 
of the City of London) was a solicitor, though nobody 
ever looked less like one. I remember him always 
as a typical squire, rubicund, white-whiskered, im- 
mersed in the breeding of shorthorns at Broadfields 
Farm, where we lived, he and I. The solid mansion 
which he had erected upon the site of a former home- 
stead was surrounded by a park of ample acreage, and 
if the house was far too large for the pair of us, there 
was all the more room in it for the frequent guests 
whom the old man loved to entertain. He had been 
a widower since my infancy and had never, so far as 
I knew, contemplated marrying a second time. The 
hunting, the shooting, the shorthorns, and perhaps I 
may be permitted to add my humble self, stood him 
in lieu of other domestic joys. Of course he did not 
wholly neglect his lucrative business, and there were 
few days out of the hunting season on which he failed 
to spend an hour or two in the City ; but I take it 
that the lion's share of the work was done by his 
partner Mr. Ogden, a dry, thin-lipped, rather pompous 
personage whom I seldom saw. The firm of Rolfe and 
Ogden enjoyed the highest of reputations, not only 
amongst the large landowners of Berks and Bucks, 
many of whom confided the management of their 
affairs to those trustworthy, cautious hands, but also 
in the ranks of neighbouring farmers and other humbler 
folk. These in every emergency were in the habit 
of consulting ' Sir William,' sure that they would 


28 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


never go wrong if they acted upon his kindly and 
sagacious advice. 

“ But he was chary of advice to me ; still more so 
of issuing paternal orders. ' It isn’t as if you would 
have to work for your living,’ he would say. ' Strike 
out a line for yourself when the time comes and what 
pleases you will please me.’ That, I imagine, was not 
quite literally true. What would no doubt have 
pleased him would have been to see me more addicted 
to field-sports than I was ; I know that my literary 
leanings, which discovered themselves while I was 
still a boy at Eton, were little to his taste, and I 
suspect that he had a pretty hearty contempt — though 
he would not hurt my feelings by saying so — ^for the 
novelists to whose works I devoted entranced hours 
which, by his way of thinking, would have been 
better spent in the playing fields or on the river. But 
it was true that he wished me to please myself. There 
had never been any question of my joining him and 
succeeding him in the business, my unfitness for such 
a destiny being too glaringly manifest. Perhaps it 
would be going too far to say that he and I stood upon 
a footing of mutual comprehension ; but nothing, I 
am now glad to remember, could lessen or disturb 
our mutual affection. 

“ Uncle Robert, who came to stay at Broadfields 
periodically, essayed, in obedience to a strong sense 
of duty, the hopeless task of making mischief between 
us. Mr. Robert Fulton, my maternal uncle, was an 
old bachelor, a County Court judge and, I must say, 
as cantankerous a person as I have ever encountered. 
He had a poor opinion of me, which he did not disguise 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 


29 


He predicted that the absurd policy of indulging all 
my whims and caprices would be the ruin of me. If 
I was above becoming a solicitor, let me at least be 
made to read for the Bar. ' An idle fellow,’ he was 
wont to mutter — ‘ an idle, useless fellow ! ’ And when 
my father only laughed, he made uncivil allusions 
to the crackling of thorns under a pot. 

“ Useless, perhaps ; idle, no. All my life I have 
been a steady, conscientious worker and have loved 
work — ^that is the special kind of work for which I 
must assume that I was born and which it seemed 
to me that I should have a better chance of perfecting 
by travel than by the customary routine of University 
education. An indignant man was Uncle Robert 
when he was informed that my wish was to be gratified. 
As if a silly, dreamy schoolboy ought to be allowed 
any voice in so important a matter ! Yes, he could 
well believe that I should prefer scampering about 
the Continent to taking my degree at Oxford or Cam- 
bridge, like other youths of my class ; but he could 
not believe that even so fond and feeble a parent as 
his brother-in-law would sanction a scheme devoid of 
all sense or purpose. However, he had to believe it, 
for my father backed me up. Why he backed me up 
I can’t say. Had he been called upon to give counsel 
to one of his neighbours in a parallel case, he would 
assuredly have pointed out the risks and drawbacks 
of divergence from the beaten track ; but I fancy he 
recognised in me an exceptional being, (‘ More’s the 
pity ! ’ he would think), and he himself told me that 
he had no fear of my lapsing into debauchery or 
otherwise playing the fool. Although I had been shy 


30 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


of avowing my aspirations to literary eminence, he 
probably divined an ambition which he may have 
deplored, yet was unwilling to thwart. With my 
desire to enlarge my horizon by familiarising myself 
with other nations and their languages he could 
sympathise — or said he could. I am now disposed 
to think that my poor dear father was a shrewder 
observer than I took him for in the old days. 

“ I was only twenty when I set forth to discover 
the world. Not too young, of course, to be deeply 
in love ; still scarcely mature enough for a verbal 
declaration of my passion. For the rest, I was 
absurdly persuaded (how unutterably absurd it was 
of me !) that this was no secret to Blanche Stanfield, 
and I am afraid I must add that I had every hope of 
being accepted by her when the time should come for 
me to make her a formal proposal of marriage. As 
the Stanfields were our next-door neighbours, and as 
Blanche and I had been upon terms of the closest 
intimacy from childhood, the odds against a romantic 
sequel were naturally long. One doesn’t become 
enamoured of one’s playmates — or, if one does, it is 
after a dim, infantile fashion which evaporates with 
adolescence. But it appears that I was exceptional in 
that as in other respects. I was a young ass no doubt ; 
a little ordinary intelligence should have taught me 
what is now so evident, that at no time has Blanche 
regarded me in any other light than that of a trusty 
friend, and at the time of which I am speaking she 
probably did not credit me with so much value, having 
had small occasion to test me. You have seen Mrs. 
Maddison, and I daresay you would describe her 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 


31 


impartially as retaining vestiges of considerable beauty. 
To my eyes her beauty has increased rather than 
diminished ; but I admit that mine are not impartial 
eyes. In the days of her and my early youth she had 
the wild-rose complexion of which Kitty can boast 
today and was — though I don’t ask you to believe 
me — ^much prettier than Kitty is or ever will be. 
However, I won’t dwell upon such invidious contrasts. 
I only want, by way of preparing you for the contrast 
that is coming in a minute or two, to emphasise the 
felicity of my imagined position — Gloving and beloved, 
secure, by reason of my father’s prosperity and my 
own quite decent record, against demur on the part 
of Blanche’s parents, assured of ultimate bliss and 
merely waiting until I should be able to lay at the 
beloved one’s feet something more worthy of her 
acceptance than my heart alone. For, you see, I did 
not doubt that I had in me the makings of a dis- 
tinguished writer. Call me conceited if you like. I 
don’t suppose you will ; but if you did, you wouldn’t 
be the first to apply that label to my obstinate con- 
viction of ability. The conviction persists to this day, 
notwithstanding the heavy knocks on the head which 
have been administered to if ; the conceit, if it ever 
existed, died the death long ago. One has this or 
that inherent quality ; it would be as ridiculous to 
deny it as to deny that one has a nose on one’s face. 
Whether the quality has been efficiently utilised is 
another affair. 

“ I am reproached, as you know, with being terribly 
verbose, and it seems as if I were bent upon proving 
to you that the charge is not unfounded ; but I will 


32 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


try to condense. My wanderings, which were planned 
to extend to Italy and Germany, did not, as a matter 
of fact, take me any farther away than France for a 
whole year. Paris enthralled me. I had the right 
kind of introductions — ^by which I mean the privilege 
of admission to literary circles — and I was lucky in 
making friends to whom literature was the serious 
thing that it was and is to me. In France a young 
man may take up the avocation of letters and nobody 
will deride his choice ; in England, of course, he can 
do nothing of the sort without forfeiting all claim to 
be considered a serious person. I was helped with my 
studies, which were unremitting ; I mixed only with 
French people ; I learned to think in French, and if 
I never got a grip of the inimitable Gallic style, I 
arrived at an appreciation of it which has been more 
or less useful to me. Those allies of ours are, like 
our enemies, professionals. They have specialised in 
art, just as the plodding Prussians have specialised 
in sundry sciences, including that of war ; whereas 
we rather pride ourselves upon being a nation of 
amateurs. It isn’t so much that they stride away 
from us as that we are not in the same class with 
them. This discovery might have daunted me if I 
had been a few years older ; but I was callow and in 
buoyant spirits ; I flattered myself that I could 
adapt French methods to English composition, (which, 
as I was to realise later, is neither possible nor desir- 
able) ; above all, I was immensely interested. It was 
only natural that the social side of my experience 
should have had many charms for me ; not even the 
joy of seeing Blanche tempted me to take the holiday 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 33 

which my father suggested, nor did I notice at the 
time — ^though subsequent reperusal of his letters gave 
evidence enough of it — that he wrote in a strain of 
unusual and increasing depression. I should not, in 
any case, have associated the idea of illness with a 
man so hale and hearty as he was ; I had no fore- 
bodings when I found a telegram awaiting me one 
day and carelessly tore the blue paper open. It 
conveyed a summons signed by Uncle Robert — Come 
home at once. Your father has had a seizure. 

“ At the moment when this message was despatched 
my poor old man was already gone. He had been 
found — so I was told on reaching Broadfields — flying 
insensible in his study and had drawn his last breath 
before the doctor arrived. 

“ ' I advise you,’ said Uncle Robert drily, ‘ not to 
mourn too much over your father’s death. It was 
the best thing that could have happened to him.’ 

Alas ! it was. Whether the duty which devolved 
upon Uncle Robert of explaining to me why it was so 
grieved him as deeply as he professed that it did I 
cannot say ; but no doubt he found mitigation in 
stating that he had foreseen, our atrocious disaster. 
He had always, he declared, predicted what would 
come of trying to be at one and the same time a 
solicitor and a country geptleman, and although I 
did not believe that he had ever done anything of 
the kind, I was not in a position to contradict him. 

“ There were other things which I could not bring 
myself to believe then or thereafter ; but what left 
no room for incredulity was that the firm of Rolfe 
and Ogden had defaulted and that the junior partner 
3 


34 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


had fled the country. I have a confused impression 
of having been coldly, inexorably furnished with 
full details, the purport of which was not only ruin 
but disgrace. That the firm’s clients, high and low, 
had been systematically defrauded was certain ; that 
Mr. Ogden was a scoundrel and a thief was estab- 
lished ; all I can say for Uncle Robert — ^and it is 
sa5dng something for the atrabilious old fellow — is 
that he refrained from casting such epithets at my 
dead father, whom he preferred to characterise as a 
more or less culpable dupe. Others who, unlike my 
uncle, had suffered heavy pecuniary loss through the 
laches (to call it by no harsher name) of a man for 
whose scrupulous integrity they would have gone 
bail were not so merciful. It was hardly to be expected 
of them that they should be. I had to hear my father 
called the most hypocritical swindler of the century ; 
I had to read in the newspapers scathing reports of 
his frauds upon widows and orphans ; I had to face 
a sobbing, threatening crowd of visitors who appar- 
ently thought that their savings were in my pocket. 
Stones were actually thrown at his coffin on the day 
of the hurried funeral which no solitary neighbour 
of ours attended. More or less culpable, to borrow 
my uncle’s phrase, I suppose he must have been ; it 
is difficult to see how he could have helped being 
cognizant of his partner’s malversations. Yet that 
he consciously had a hand in downright embezzlement 
was and is to me inconceivable. The strange thing 
is that, standing alone as I did, I contrived to keep 
my head and play my miserable part as my father’s 
representative without faltering. Uncle Robert, I 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 


35 

recollect, complimented me ironically upon my coolness 
and self-control. 

But he had no compliments, sincere or sarcastic, 
for me when he learned that I intended to hand over 
my own small fortune — a few thousand pounds 
inherited from my mother — ^to the creditors. He 
could only conclude, he observed, that this fantastic 
notion was the outcome of wasting time over trashy 
novels and plays. Doubtless I fancied myself a very 
fine fellow and hoped to win applause from the gallery ; 
but I might take his word for it that I should get no 
thanks even if the paltry sum which I proposed to 
fling into the sea of my late father’s liabilities could be 
multiplied by ten or twenty. Nor indeed should I 
deserve any. I was under no obligation, legal or 
moral, to behave like a lunatic, and it was pretty 
clear that if I pauperised myself, somebody would 
have to feed and clothe me. He begged to say that 
he was not going to be that benevolent person. 

'' My answer was that, little as I could do, I held 
myself bound to do that little ; and, as I was just of 
age, I could no longer be forbidden to dispose of my 
property in any way that commended itself to me. 
As to possible demands upon his charity he might set 
his mind at ease. I solemnly promised and swore 
that I would starve rather than apply to him for a 
penny. . 

“ I have seldom seen anyone so exasperated as 
Uncle Robert was when, after long argument, he was 
fain to bid me go to the devil. That I should reach 
that destination, and reach it quickly, he had no 
manner of doubt. ‘ Earn your living indeed ! How 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


36 

do you expect to accomplish that, pray ? By sweeping 
a crossing ? For the life of me I can’t imagine you 
fitted to undertake • any thing else, and I presume that 
all the best crossings are engaged. You will be on 
my doorstep in rags before you are much older, and I 
give you fair warning that the door will remain shut. 
I don’t value your promise and oath at a straw. I 
wash my hands of you. You are a bigger fool than I 
took you for, which means that you are in all pro- 
bability the biggest fool alive.’ 

“ Poor old Uncle Robert ! He was wrong in his 
forecast, for I never craved alms of him ; but I 
daresay he was right in his estimate of my intelligence. 
Whether he ever modified it I am not sure ; probably 
he shared Carlyle’s opinion of novelists in general, 
though in the long run events must have forced him 
to acknowledge that I was at least capable of earning 
a living. He died about a year ago, leaving me — since 
I no longer needed it — his entire fortune. 

Great, as you may well suppose, was my need 
when I quitted Broadfields for the last time. So 
great, in fact, that I deprived my self-spoliation of all 
its lustre by keeping back a part of the money, like 
Ananias. Two hundred pounds, to be precise. I 
simply hadn’t the pluck to confront the wide world 
empty-handed, and I calculated that, with that 
exiguous capital to my credit, I should be able to 
carry on until the success of my first book (I had 
got the scaffolding up for it) should place me out of 
danger of actual want. Insane ? Oh, absolutely, 
of course ; but my ignorance of the business side 
of light literature was on a par with my unwavering 


TRISTRAM^S YARN 


37 


faith in my literary ability. You are to picture me, 
then, facing the future with that pathetically meagre 
equipment — solitary, disgraced and friendless. What, 
you may wonder, had become of all my friends ? 
Was there nobody to hold out a hand or speak a kind 
word to a poor devil who, if tarnished, was personally 
guiltless ? Well, no ; there was nobody. I won’t 
deny some temporary surprise and soreness on my 
part ; but now I perfectly understand that friends 
felt constrained to a waiting attitude in regard to one 
whose wounds it may well have seemed more con- 
siderate to refrain from touching. What, when you 
come to think of it, was there to be done for me ? 
I am sure that if I had presented myself at Marling, 
the General — ^though he, like others, had been hit 
by the lightning stroke of my father’s bankruptcy — 
would have received me in a magnanimous spirit ; 
but I could not go and beg for his sympathy or pity. 
Much less could I dream of approaching my dearest 
Blanche. She would surely understand, I thought, 
that the one and only thing for me to do was to 
vanish ; she would surely understand that I must 
either vanish from her life for ever or return when I 
could once more hold up my head and plead that I 
had made a name for myself which atoned for the 
dishonoured one that I bore by birth. It has to be 
confessed that Uncle Robert was not far out when 
he dubbed me the biggest fool alive,” 


CHAPTER IV 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 

'‘The best and simplest method of vanishing,” 
Tristram resumed, after a short interval of silence, 
broken only by the lapping of wavelets against the 
punt and the faint murmur of adjacent osiers, ” was; 
I thought, to revert to Paris. Not indeed to the 
charming coterie which I had quitted there and with 
which I had neither the means nor the desire to 
resume relations ; but I wanted the Parisian environ- 
ment for the purposes of the great novel which was to 
Jpring me fame and fortune, and a couple of modest 
rooms in Montmartre promised to meet my require- 
ments as a sequestered post of observation. From 
the first to the last day of my sojourn on those heights 
I encountered never a soul whom I knew ; for the 
season was sultry summer and all my acquaintances 
were presumably in the country or aux eaux. So 
there I sat in unbroken solitude day after day, toiling 
and wrestling with a subject far too ambitious for my 
years and experience and ultimately producing in 
Audacity a work about which you have been pleased 
to say things which have touched me. Its title might 
have stood very well for the motto of its author ; the 
more so because that first effort of mine was largely 

38 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 


39 


imitative. Balzac, Flaubert, Daudet and I know 
not how many others set their unconscious shoulders 
to the wheel of my creaking vehicle ; but there was 
a good deal of myself in its construction too — enough 
perhaps to ensure its sticking in the mud. 

Autumn was sliding into winter when the magnum 
opus, rapidly yet not hurriedly completed, was ready 
for the publisher, and I crossed the Channel with it 
in quest of that formidable personage. Whoever or 
whatever he might ton out to be, he was bound to 
be formidable, inasmuch as my immediate future lay 
at his mercy. I had lived, as it appeared to me, very 
economically at Montmartre ; but in money matters 
I have always been a hopeless bungler, and by the 
time that I had installed myself in a rather grimy 
Bloomsbury lodging not much more than sixty pounds 
out of my original two hundred remained to me. So 
it was clear that the sooner a publisher was found 
the better. I decided to send my manuscript in the 
first instance to Webster and Young, because of their 
high reputation and because somebody had told me 
that they were generous in their dealings with authors. 
A prompt and formal acknowledgment of its receipt 
reached me ; after which I waited and waited through 
weeks of sick suspense without hearing another word 
from them. At length I ventured to write again, 
saying that I should feel greatly obliged if they would 
let me have their decision ; whereupon came a quite 
friendly note from Mr. Graves, who, it appeared, was 
their reader and who expressed a wish to have a talk 
with me at their office. 

Off I set to Paternoster Row with a beating heart. 


40 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


You may hatre read one or another of Mr. Graves’s 
innumerable novels ; you are aware, at any rate, that 
he is one of the most widely read of living novelists. 
For my part, I was not in the least prejudiced against 
him by the circumstance that his writings were not 
to my taste, and there was so little antecedent likeli- 
hood of mine approving themselves to his that I took 
this invitation for a favourable omen. I found him 
in occupation of a good-sized, handsomely fitted 
room and a deep armchair, out of which he bounced 
with alacrity on my entrance to offer me his hand — 
a bald man, approaching middle age, whose broad 
countenance suggested friendliness, not unmingled 
with surprise. The latter emotion, he explained forth- 
with, was evoked by my juvenile aspect, for which 
he had not been at all prepared. ' Most remarkable ! ’ 
he cried. ' But indeed I must say that your whole 
work is remarkable.’ 

It was a hopeful start, and hope was reinforced 
when he pushed me into a chair facing his, handed 
me a cigarette and proceeded to hold forth in a pleasant, 
familiar way upon the topic of contemporary fiction. 
I don’t remember much of what he said ; probably 
I paid no great attention to it, being so eager for the 
verdict which he seemed to be in little haste to pro- 
nounce. But I do recall his frequent recurrence to 
the dictum that literary value and commercial value 
are two distinct things. I believe it was in response 
to an irrepressible hint from me that he was finally 
brought to the point. 

“ ' Ah, yes, now for Audacity y' said he, diving into 
one of the drawers of his writing-table and producing 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 


41 

thence my M.S., which he kept upon his knees during 
the remainder of our colloquy and patted gently at 
intervals, as if it had been a nice little dog, though 
unfortunately disqualified for prize winning. ‘ Can- 
didly, Mr. Rolfe, at first sight I thought it a rotten 
title : afterwards I wasn’t sure that I didn’t rather 
like it. There’s a lot in a title, you know. It’s the 
fly that you drop over the rising fish in the hope of 
arousing his curiosity. With luck, he may say to 
himself that Audacity sounds tempting and may take 
the volume home to see what there is in it. What 
he will find in your book, Mr. Rolfe, is some really 
fine work — close observation, clash of character, sug- 
gestiveness, inevitability. What, on the other hand, 
he won’t find is excitement and suspense, which, 
believe me, are for him essentials. You trust too 
much to the intelligence of the reader. Speaking of 
him generically, he has no intelligence — ^none at all — 
and, if he had, he would resent being called upon to 
exercise it. You see, it isn’t always easy to get at 
your meaning. I myself had to read some passages 
several times over before I could grasp what you were 
driving at.’ 

'' He himself ! But his strictures were entirely 
just. Of course I know that now and I partly knew 
it then ; still I confess that I did not detect in all 
this talk the prelude to the rejection of my novel. 
He announced that with a brisk, goodhumoured 
laugh. 

“ ' Mine, you see, is a dual personality. As a 
brother novelist my sympathies are all with you ; 
your book interests me enormously and I should like 


42 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


to give it a lift. But — I am here to do my duty to 
my employers, and I can’t, I am sorry to say, advise 
them to issue Audacity. Don’t be discouraged, 
though ; you’ll get a hearing one of these days, I’m 
sure. Only you’ll have to make some concessions 
next time, and bear in mind that thistles are the 
last kind of food upon which the British variety of 
jackass will consent to browse. Meanwhile, I shouldn’t 
despair even of Audacity. You might try some of 
the newer and more enterprising firms. We’re a 
trifle unadventurous here, I own.’ 

Presently I was out in the street, with my unsale- 
able parcel under my arm and my heart in my boots. 
Nowadays I often find myself in Mr. Graves’s com- 
pany. He pays me compliments which I daresay are 
sincere, he doesn’t patronise me more than he can 
help and I have a sort of liking for him. But I believe 
I should have disliked him with less fervour ten years 
ago if he had been curtly recusant, instead of amiably 
loquacious. 

“ I won’t linger upon the four or five months that 
followed ; you wouldn’t wish for a circumstantial 
narrative of that squalid purgatory. It is enough to 
say that Audacity returned to me at intervals with 
desolating fidelity, like a homing pigeon, more and 
more grubby and bedraggled of aspect from the 
handling of many publishers or their subordinates, 
while my money, despite the ignominious shifts and 
thrifts to which I was coerced, took steady, remorseless 
flight. A time came when I could not pay my re- 
proachful landlady her weekly rent ; a time came 
when sheer hunger showed me its ugly face. I took 


THE YARN CONCLipED 43 

to leaning over the parapet of the Embankment and 
gazing at the swift, discoloured river with an eye to 
last resorts. To what resorts won’t a starving man 
descend before he resolves to have done with this 
world ? For obvious reasons I had avoided the 
western districts ; now it came to my haunting Pall 
Mall, St. James’s Street and Piccadilly in the hope 
of encountering some former friend or acquaintance 
of whom I might ask the accommodation of a loan. 
And I did encounter not a few. Some of them, after 
a scared glance at me in my shabby habiliments, 
frankly bolted ; others had an embarrassed nod or a 
wave of the hand for me, but took care not to be 
accosted ; only one allowed me to stammer out my 
shamefaced request and, having mentioned that, upon 
principle, he never lent money, offered me, as a free 
gift — ^half a sovereign ! I am glad I didn’t take it, 
God knows why I didn’t, for I was at the last gasp 
and certainly couldn’t afford the luxury of pride ; 
but I told him — ^mendaciously — that I was not a 
beggar and so went my way. 

Wandering without aim through Mayfair that 
same afternoon, I saw Jack Maddison, with a big 
carnation in his buttonhole, come rolling out of the 
mews through the narrow entrance to which I had, a 
few minutes before, witnessed his neat pilotage of 
his four-in-hand. Although he and I had for a time 
been in the same division at Eton, I had never known 
him well, and I should scarcely have ventured to speak 
to him if he had not, by the mercy of Heaven, caught 
sight of me and recognised me. 

“ ^ Dashed if it isn’t Rolfe ! ’ he shouted, and down 


44 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

came his big hand on my shoulder. ' Well, old 
man, how has the world been treating you all this 
time ? ’ 

'' Perhaps my sorry appearance was a sufficient 
reply to his question ; perhaps — upon my honour, I 
believe it was so — ^he wished to spare me the morti- 
fication of a recital which he cut short with — 

‘ Oh, yes, I was told. Your governor went pop ; 
awfully sorry to hear of it. But I say, you know, 
this won’t do ; this’ll never do ! Come along home 
with me and we’ll see what we can manage.’ 

He carried me off to the comfortable bachelor 
quarters which he inhabited at that time ; he gave me 
sandwiches and a stiff whisky-and-soda ; then he 
squared himself down to his writing-table and pulled 
out his cheque-book. ' What shall we say, old chap ? 
A hundred quid ? — ^two hundred ? ’ 

“ I don’t doubt that he would have lent me a 
thousand if I had had the effrontery to suggest such a 
sum. He was rich, it is true ; but so were several of 
those who, with a dismayed glance at me, had hastened 
to pass by on the other side of the street. My pecu- 
niary debt to this roy storing replica of the Good 
Samaritan was liquidated years ago : to repay him in 
full was impossible, seeing that to him I owe every- 
thing that I have and am. And he doesn’t remind me 
of it. His kindness to me could not have been greater 
if I had been his dearest friend. He had, in fact — I 
can’t conceive why — a regard for me which I had done 
nothing to deserve and which survives to this day, 
making me hot all over with shame and compunction. 
Naturally, he could give me no literary help ; but be 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 


45 

introduced me to his brother, who could and did. 
Sidney read Audacity, saw at once what it was worth 
(and what it wasn’t) and persuaded Messrs. Humphreys, 
who have been my publishers ever since, to produce 
what he daringly called a masterpiece. I was paid 
fifty pounds for the copyright and I don’t think they 
were out of pocket by the bargain, though the book 
attracted little attention. 

“ Now you will perceive that if, by Jack Maddison’s 
extraordinary benevolence, I had been snatched from 
ruin and despair, my position was no such enviable one. 
My illusions died hard ; but it was clear that the 
prospect of supporting myself by my pen was, to say 
the least of it, remote, and in the meantime I was 
eating the bitter bread of charity. Things couldn’t 
go on like that. The elder of the two brothers seemed 
to' see no reason why they shouldn’t ; the younger, 
whom I have never been able to like, though I ought 
to be sincerely grateful to him, had more discernment ; 
yet he was fain to avow that it was beyond him to 
discover a paid occupation for me. ‘ My dear Rolfe,’ 
he said, ' you have conspicuous gifts. It would be 
against all experience and precedent if you were to 
make money by them.’ 

“ It turned out that I had a gift which, but for a 
mere accident, would assuredly have remained the 
reverse of conspicuous to us both. I went with the 
two Maddisons to the theatre one evening to see a 
play which was drawing large audiences and which 
nauseated Sidney, while it moved Jack to alternate 
roars of laughter and accesses of nose-blowing senti- 
ment. It was the veriest trash that ever was put 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


46 

upon the boards and it was said to have brought a 
small fortune to its talented writer. Just to show how 
easily such rubbish could be composed, I amused 
myself afterwards by scribbling a skit on similar lines, 
and Sidney, on perusing the stuff, inquired, with a 
sardonic grin, whether it was meant for a joke or not. 

‘ Because,' said he, * 111 bet you an even shilling that 
a few alterations and excisions would induce Allingham 
to take it quite seriously.' 

If youll believe me, Allingham, with whom Sidney 
had an acquaintance, did take it seriously. He took 
it in every sense of the words, said it was the very 
thing he wanted and produced it almost immediately 
at his theatre with resounding eclat ! Such, I give you 
my word, was the genesis of The Penitent Criminal, 
which bore me aloft on its preposterous wings to 
heights undreamt of by the neglected author of 
Audacity. Even today it brings me in a steady 
income ; it has been played and is still being played 
in the provinces, in the Colonies, in America. Oh, 
yes, of course ! I agree ‘that it isn’t wholly bad of its 
wholly bad kind. It deals, as a cultivated person 
gravely remarked to me, with the elemental passions 
of human nature. Well, if elementary studies are 
what you want, there you are ! I possess — unaccount- 
ably — ^the playwright’s little bag of tricks ; I have 
a sense for the crude situations which the theatre 
demands ; I know how to stir the facile emotions of 
the crowd. The Penitent Criminal bears witness to 
my efficiency at the job ; it and its successors have 
placed my feet upon the broad high-road of affluence 
and celebrity. Only at each step I have felt, like 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 


47 

Hans Andersen’s Little Mermaid, as if I was walking 
upon knives. 

I won’t say that the sharpness of these struck me 
as excessive at starting. Independence is dear to every 
son of Adam, and you may guess how much it implied 
to a lover who saw impossibilities restored to the 
category of the possible by it. I don’t mean that I 
expected to be at once welcomed as a suitor upon the 
strength of my being no longer a pauper : rehabilita- 
tion evidently had to be the work of time, as well as 
of established prosperity. But when two long years 
had passed since my poor father’s eclipse and death, 
and when my name had become in a measure famous, 
I thought I might venture upon a tentative advance 
towards friends of whom during all that time I had 
heard no word, and while I was wondering how this 
might best be initiated, whom should I espy, gazing 
at the window of a print-shop in Piccadilly, but General 
Stanfield himself ! He descried meTit the same moment 
and hailed me with unfeigned heartiness. 

“ ' My dear boy, what a pleasure to run against you 
at last ! We have been making inquiries about you for 
ever so long, but nobody could tell us where you 
were to be found. Of course we went to see that 
capital play of yours ; I always maintained that you 
would make yourself heard of sooner or later. You 
might have made yourself heard of by us a little sooner, 
though, don’t you think so ? Now when will you spare 
us a day or two at Marling ? Your old ally Blanche 
will be delighted to congratulate you, and by the 
same token you may congratulate her ; for she has just 
engaged herself to be married.’ 


48 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


“ Thus instantaneously was I flung back from 
the opening gates of Paradise, whilst Piccadilly, with 
its vehicles and pedestrians, executed a wild and 
whirling dance around me. I took it as I have seen 
men take a bullet through the heart, except that I 
didn’t end by tumbling down. That is, I neither 
flinched nor squealed, and presently I heard myself 
saying with admirable composure that I hoped Miss 
Stanfield’s choice had the approval of her parents. 

'' ' Oh, yes,’ he answered, ‘ a good fellow — very good 
fellow. Jack Maddison, whom you may have known 
at Eton, where I think he must have been about of 
your standing.’ 

I said I knew Maddison well ; that he was in fact 
rather a friend of mine. What happened next I don’t 
recollect. I suppose I got away somehow, and I am 
sure I can’t have betrayed any emotion, since it was 
afterwards always taken for granted that I was as 
much pleased as everybody else with the proposed 
marriage. Jack Maddison, of all the world ! Jack, 
who had never so much as mentioned the Stanfields to 
me, and who .... But no doubt if he had been the 
prince of good fellows, I should have deemed him 
equally unworthy of her. And he was not at that time 
a black sheep : who had better cause than I to testify 
that he was not ? Somewhat coarse of fibre and neither 
refined nor intellectual in his tastes ; yet one could 
not call it incomprehensible or even strange that a 
refined girl should have fallen in love with him. The 
strange, the incomprehensible thing was my assump- 
tion — on no earthly ground except my wish for it — 
that she had loved me and continued true to me through 


THE YARN CONCLUDED 


49 


my two years of clouded banishment. Of course she 
had never been in the least in love with me, and she 
certainly had no suspicion when we met that she was 
shaking hands with a broken-hearted noodle. 

I wasn’t, I am thankful to say, such a noodle as to 
reject the friendship which was all that she had to 
bestow upon me and which has grown closer and firmer 
throughout her wretched married life. You know, 
as we all do, how wretched that life has been, and you 
can imagine how powerless I have found myself to 
shield or comfort her. The irony of existence is a 
threadbare theme and perhaps I am no worse off than 
a thousand others ; only it does seem to me that the 
Fates have been rather exceptionally derisive in my 
case. The friend who succoured me in the hour of my 
dire distress marries the woman whom I loved and 
love ; his conduct to her is infamous beyond all words ; 
I ought to loathe and detest him, and — I can’t ! I get 
no nearer detestation than I should if he were afflicted 
with some repulsive disease, like leprosy. What her 
sentiments are with regard to him I can’t tell. They 
may be much the same as my own ; for I offend her 
when I say, as I must, that the Divorce Court is her 
sole resource. Very likely she sets me down as a luke- 
warm partisan ; very likely she divines that I dread 
quarrelling with Jack lest he should forbid me to see 
her any more. So I am reduced to looking on and 
reiterating vain, unacceptable counsels. My ambition 
was to excel in my art. * Very good,’ say the Fates ; 
* excel you shall, but it shall be as a purveyor of 
comedies de la foire,’ I am well-to-do ; I have the air 
of being a winner and am so pronounced a loser ! And 
4 


50 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


I don’t see how I could have helped it — any of it. 
There was the plain duty of earning an honest com- 
petence; there was the common gratitude that I 
owe to Jack Maddison- and the loyalty which I can’t 
refuse to his wife — a tangle of enforced incompati- 
bilities. These things had to be. Then why not 
make the best of them ? you may ask. Well, I make 
the best I can of them ; but perhaps you won’t con- 
tradict me now if I say again that the best that can be 
made of them and me leaves me a failure.” 


CHAPTER V 
kitty’s holiday 

The sun’s rays had taken a slant from the westward 
by the time that Tristram finished his verbal auto- 
biography, which had not been quite as consecutive 
as has been represented above. His hearer, who had 
been unable to refrain from periodical interpositions, 
was touched by the sadness of it — still more so, perhaps, 
by its unreserved relation, coming from a man who was 
not only his senior but for whom, as a literary crafts- 
man, he had a profound admiration and respect. Such 
confessions imply a great deal, and, apart from the 
strong personal affection that he had conceived for the 
narrator, he felt it a high honour to be Tristram Rolfe’s 
chosen friend. He was probably a little too young to 
appreciate the cruellest and most irremediable feature 
in his friend’s hard lot. Nobody, in truth, whether 
young or old, regards the mishap of having been crossed 
in love as tragic, unless the case be his own, nor had 
Tristram himself laid much stress upon that. But 
the self-depreciation of an acknowledged master of his 
art struck young Hadow as both unwarranted and 
distressing. 

I can’t bear you to call yourself a failure,” he pro- 
tested ; ” it isn’t in the least true. Why, you’re a 
classic already ! ” 


51 


52 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


Tristram shook his head and smiled. Hardly 
that. What you mean is that I have a very limited 
circle of readers who have been pleased to hoist me up 
on to a pedestal at which the great public — ^when it 
happens to look that way — stares in surprise and 
passes on, scratching a puzzled head.’' 

The great public is a dunce, and the people whose 
opinion is worth a straw must always form a limited 
circle.” 

” No ; the great public constitutes the final tribunal. 
Its mental processes are slow, but in the long run a 
writer who deserves recognition gets it. I shall never 
overcome the handicap of my style, which I can’t 
alter and which makes me, as Mrs. Stanfield quite truly 
says, indigestible.” 

” Caviare to the general.” 

” Or suet or toasted cheese or something. Difficult 
of assimilation, anyhow. By these, my son, be ad- 
monished and cultivate perspicuity while it is yet 
time. Oughtn’t we to be getting back ? ” 

Such conversation as ensued while the punt was 
being guided down stream, helped by the current and 
by a light breeze which had sprung up, was fragmentary 
and bore no reference to a recital better met by un- 
spoken sympathy than by words. The two men 
understood one another so well that they could exchange 
thoughts without opening their lips, and Tristram, 
lying back, with his hands clasped behind his head and 
his eyes directed towards a flight of rooks, cawing 
lazily under the dappled sky, was amusedly aware that 
his companion had half a mind — ^though only half a 
mind — ^to offer him confidence for confidence. The 


KITTY'S tfOLIDAY 


53 


young fellow was indeed balancing a wish to show due 
reciprocity against a shy disinclination to unfold a 
very simple and commonplace tale. The circum- 
stances of his stay at Marling had been, he felt, such 
as to render the loss of his heart to Kitty Stanfield a 
well-nigh foregone conclusion. He could not, in the 
face of sundry impassioned lyrics which had seen the 
light, pretend that she was absolutely his first flame, 
and a third person might well doubt whether she 
would be his last. He himself, it was true, was con- 
vinced that he had never really loved before ; but one 
cannot make asseverations of that nature without 
appearing a trifle ridiculous : besides which, he was 
not, and had no sort of title to be, sanguine, his patri- 
mony being of modest dimensions and his future 
nebulous. Moreover, he had a shrewd suspicion that 
Rolfe already knew how matters stood with him. 
All things considered, therefore, he thought he would 
hold his peace for the present. 

Certainly, if he had been more communicative, he 
would not have imparted any news to an expert student 
of men and manners. To Tristram Rolfe the human 
comedy was less a series of interesting problems (it 
offered a few from time to time) than a spectacle in 
which the actors played their respective parts invari- 
ably and more or less involuntarily as these were 
dictated by the given conditions. More or less involun- 
tary also were the mental notes which long habit 
impelled him to take of them and their proceedings. 
He watched them because he could not help watching 
them, and often he could have told them more about 
themselves than they could have told him. Thus on 


54 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


the following day he saw some things which caused 
him to smile and others which drew a sigh from him, 
though no specially significant incident marked the 
passage of the sunlit hours. The morning service in 
the cool, musty-smelling church, which was attended 
by the whole party, except Sidney Maddison ; the 
customary afternoon saunterings and visits to the 
home farm and the depleted stables ; tea beneath the 
limes in the fragrant garden ; pranks on the part of 
the young folks, a tendency to somnolence on that 
of their elders — ^it was all pleasantly peaceful, ordinary 
and trivial on the surface ; yet there were partially 
discernible undercurrents which did not presage 
ultimate peace for the objects of Tristram’s chief 
solicitude. The drawback to acute vision and pre- 
vision is apt to be the sense of personal impotence 
engendered thereby in the mind of the spectator. 

This may have been one of Tristram’s reasons 
for deciding to return to London on the Monday 
morning, in spite of its being Kitty’s day off from 
hospital duties and in spite of his being apostrophised 
as “ a selfish pig ” by that young lady, who protested 
that the least her friends could do was to make a rare 
holiday enjoyable for her. Perhaps he thought that 
she could be depended upon to enjoy herself without 
help from him ; at any rate he turned a deaf ear to her 
entreaties, supported though these were by a unanimous 
chorus. Sidney Maddison, not so eagerly pressed, 
was more accommodating. Mrs. Stanfield, when this 
guest was out of hearing, rather unkindly surmised 
that his acquiescence was due to an alluring conviction 
that he was not wanted ; but her daughter declared 


KITTY^S HOLIDAY 


55 

that she, for one, wanted him. There was a soft place 
in Kitty’s heart for the unpopular man, who, to be sure, 
always showed himself at his best with her and whose 
disabling infirmity seemed to her the more pathetic 
because it was combined with so much physical 
strength and such exceptionally good looks. 

His infirmity did not hinder him from pulling a 
good oar, and Kitty, to whom the privilege of drawing 
up the day’s programme was accorded, may have had 
this circumstance in mind when she decided upon an 
afternoon tea -picnic up the river. Nevertheless, her 
disposition of forces at the moment of embarkation 
was not quite what two members of the party had been 
led to anticipate. Reggie, as of right, was to stroke 
the roomy boat in the stern of which General and Mrs. 
Stanfield seated themselves ; but when Claude was 
submissively making ready to take the bow oar, she 

waved him back with 

No ; that’s Mr. Maddison’s place. You’re to have 
the honour of sculling me in the outrigger.” 

As it was her day, her decrees had to be obeyed, and 
if this arrangement was something of a disappointment 
to one of the persons concerned, it was a surprise of a 
most delightful order to the other. During the earlier 
phases of his troublesome malady Kitty had been 
adorable with Claude Hadow, studying his comfort 
in every imaginable way, soothing the irritability 
which at times he was powerless to subdue and treating 
him in general with the tender consideration for which 
his tortured nerves made appeal ; but his arrival at 
the stage of convalescence had been the signal for a 
change in her demeanour. Sometimes she had per- 


56 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


mitted herself to laugh at him, (which had caused him 
to wince to the marrow of his bones), and more than 
once she had not hesitated to administer the direct 
snub which he had possibly, though unwittingly, 
invited. It was, therefore, a properly humble as well 
as a most grateful young man who, after a few vigorous 
strokes, ventured to exclaim : 

'' This is jolly of you ! 

“ When you come to think of it,” she answered, 
laughing, “ there wasn’t much choice. Reggie can’t 
be trusted in an outrigger ; he rather likes being 
swamped and he knows I shouldn’t drown. As for 
Mr. Maddison — ^well, I didn’t feel that I exactly yearned 
for such a very large dose of Mr. Maddison.” 

Even so, the implication was flattering enough, and 
it was accompanied by a glance from dancing blue eyes 
which did not fail to inflame the poetic soul. Claude 
Hadow, however, was careful not to play the poet 
in Miss Kitty’s company. He was" not sure that she 
cared for his poetry, or for any poetry, and he knew, 
because she had told him so, that in her opinion a man’s 
prime mission was to be manly. In physical aspect 
he should have satisfied that demand and those blue 
eyes of hers ; for his slender, well-knit figure showed 
to advantage in his boating flannels and he was a 
neat, practised sculler. His own eyes had an enchant- 
ing foreground to rejoice them, and it did not signify 
much — it never does — ^what manner of dialogue was 
exchanged between his lips and hers. Being in no 
hurry to overtake the heavier boat, which had disap- 
peared round a bend of the river, he took things easily, 
progressing with leisurely strokes up the shining reaches. 


KITTY^S HOLIDAY 


57 

past green meadows, sleepy hamlets, hanging wood- 
lands, veiled in a thin haze — ^the Thames as it used to 
be half a century ago and has in these latter days 
temporarily become once more, owing to the absence 
in sterner scenes of those whose multitudinous 
patronage had grown fatal to its charm. So this 
fortunate couple, having the broad stream virtually 
to themselves, could enjoy a well-nigh forgotten 
privilege. 

'' What,” asked Claude, with some suddenness, 
“ is your notion of Heaven ? ” 

I haven’t one,” the girl answered ; “ not the 
ghost of a shadow of one. What is yours ? ” 

'' This, I think,” was his smiling reply. 

“ For ever and ever ? ” 

Why not ? You can’t improve upon absolute 
contentment.” 

“ Ah, but there’s no prolonging it either. Oh, I’m 
liking this,” she hastened to add, “ I’m liking it 
hugely ! It’s a blessed substitute for a stuffy kitchen 
and the smell of boiled cabbage. All the same, if you 
told me that I had got to remain in this boat through- 
out eternity, I should shriek for merciful extinction. 
No ; I couldn’t stand the abolition of time and chance. 
Give me seventy years of life, free from sickness or 
decrepitude, and then let me go to sleep.” 

The young man nodded and sighed. “ You’re 
dreadfully right ; for us everything has to be relative 
and uncertain. Everlasting life, without possibility 
of progress or change, without light and shade, with- 
out dread or hope, sounds simply appalling. Yet one 
shrinks from the idea of extinction.’' 


58 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


“ If death meant extinction,” observed Kitty, 

I don’t see why anyone should be afraid of it.” 

” I am,” Claude confessed. ” Not at the end of 
your modest allowance of seventy unclouded years ; 
that much might perhaps be enough. But to be 
snuffed out before I have tasted the full joie de vivre 
and before I have had time to do anything worth 
doing — ^yes, that frightens me.” 

She shook an uplifted finger at him. ” I forbid 
you to say such things ! Come what may, you are 
never to be frightened.” 

She had taken up that admonishing tone with him 
several times before, when it had been necessary to 
check one of the painful nervous attacks to which he 
had been subject ; but of late she had dropped the 
habit of lecturing him, and her resumption of it gave 
him a thrill of pleasure, as evidence of her continued 
interest in his welfare. He reflected, though, that it 
was probably in his character of an invalid alone that 
he interested her. 

” One is what one’s physical and moral structure 
compel one to be,” he remarked, in answer to her. 

” I should have said,” she returned, ” that one is 
what one makes one’s self.” 

” Oh, dear, no ; one doesn’t make one’s self. It’s 
useless to ask any human being to be what he isn’t or 
do what he can’t.” 

” Can you make an omelette ? ” his beloved in- 
quired, descending abruptly to the plane of the material. 

” Not without breaking eggs, I’m afraid,” was his 
reply. 

” Not even then, I’m sure. Well, I can, and you 


KITTY^S HOLIDAY 


59 

shall have a really delicious omelette with your tea if 
you’ll behave.” 

‘'I’ll behave, then,” he promised, and it may have 
been in observance of that pledge that he refrained 
from further insinuations to the effect that her presence 
converted earth into Heaven for him. She was in a 
gracious mood, it was true ; but that was a reason for 
being on his guard against ruffling her. For she was 
quite capable, if annoyed, of replacing him by Reggie 
or Maddison on the return trip. 

The scene selected for the tea-picnic was a certain 
willowy eyot to which General Stanfield enjoyed right 
of access and where there was a shaded, level grass-plot 
very well suited for the required purpose. There, 
when Miss Kitty and her escort disembarked, a fire of 
sticks had already been kindled ; so that it was not 
very long before the former was able to make good her 
boast by accomplishing what lies beyond the powers 
of ninety-nine English cooks out of any hundred. 

” We are always being told,” remarked her apprecia- 
tive father pensively, “ that this abominable war has 
revealed us to ourselves in a new and stimulating light. 
There may be some truth in that. It has taken nothing 
short of a European cataclysm to prove that a daughter 
of mine can produce an omelette aux fines herhes which 
would do credit to Paris itself.” 

” I’ve changed my mind about a future state of 
being,” Claude told his neighbour. “ I wish to recline 
throughout eternity on a green islet, encircled by 
meadowsweet and loosestrife and feasting, like a Greek 
god, upon the modern equivalents of nectar and 
ambrosia. I ask for nothing more.” 


6o 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


For a poet’s vision,” observed Sidney Maddison, 
“ that sounds a trifle gross.” 

” Oh, but I don’t pretend to be a poet,” the young 
man modestly protested ; ” I’m only a very humble 
rhymester.” 

” The worst of your verses, old chap, is that they 
don't rhyme,” Reggie objected. ” Hanged if I can 
always make them scan either ! I believe I could turn 
out something like them myself if I gave the whole of 
my great mind to it. As, for instance — Here upon a 
green islet To all eternity I squat and sing. Reminding 
myself much of a Greek God. 0 meadowsweet and 
China tea ! O loosestrife and omelettes ! I ask for 
nothing more, unless it be Perchance a second 
helping.” . . . 

” Oh, shut up ! ” called out Claude, flinging a piece 
of cake at his critic, who counter-attacked with lumps 
of sugar until the General had to remind him that 
he was in a rationed country, not in the pampered 
trenches. 

Kitty, having finished her tea, moved towards the 
water’s edge, whither Claude was about to follow 
her when Mrs. Stanfield, laying a hand upon his elbow, 
drew him aside. 

” Be a dear boy,” she whispered, ” and take me for 
your passenger next time. I’m sure Kitty won’t 
mind, and words can’t express how much I mind 
sitting in the same boat with Sidney Maddison.” 

Perhaps she was sincere ; perhaps, despite her 
indulgent ways, she had some awakened sense of 
maternal responsibility. At all events, the young 
man’s dropped jaw neither affronted nor surprised nor 


KITTY^S HOLIDAY 6i 

mollified her. Of course he didn’t like it, but people 
can’t always have what they would like. 

With as good a grace as he could muster he made 
the only possible answer and paid the tribute of a 
smothered sigh to Paradise temporarily lost. There 
would have been some consolation if Kitty had shown 
any sign of objecting to the proposed change of part- 
ners ; but Kitty verified her mother’s prediction by 
not minding a bit. Kitty, unlike her mother, always 
appreciated Sidney Maddison’s company, and just 
now she had several reasons for a ready acceptance 
of it. She wanted to be a little nice to him because 
nobody else was and because she divined in him a 
latent sensitiveness of which it was certain that he was 
suspected by nobody else. Furthermore, she rather 
wanted to hear his opinion of Claude Hadow as a poet. 
Now, since you can neither be nice to a man nor ascer- 
tain his views when you are seated in the sternsheets 
of a boat while he is pulling bow, there had to be a 
casual remark on the young lady’s part to the effect 
that of course her father was no longer equal to taking 
an oar even down stream. In a moment the General’s 
coat was off and his shirt-sleeves were rolled back ; 
so that Sidney, who was requested to steer, obtained 
without solicitation the sole object of his afternoon’s 
jaunt. He was perhaps sharp enough to guess why 
he had obtained it ; but if compassion was a sentiment 
which he resented and repudiated as coming from the 
world at large, he was willing to put up with that, and 
much besides, at the hands of his present neighbour. 
He talked to her — knowing how to please her — as 
though she had been on his own intellectual level, 


62 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


and when, after a time, she put the incidental question 
to which she had been leading up, he answered her in a 
manner which was also, as he judged, of a nature to 
give her pleasure. 

“It's so impossible to say from my slight knowledge 
of the little that he has done. He isn’t a goose, that’s 
clear ; he may be the nascent swan that Rolfe thinks 
him ; there’s no telling. I’ll get him to show me 
some of his stuff, if you like, and perhaps it might be 
in my power to give him help of one sort or another, 
provided that he isn’t too proud to be helped.” 

“ It would be awfully good of you ! ” the girl 
declared, with the light of gratitude in her eyes. 

“ I’ll gladly do anything I can for him — and for 
you. He seems to be a very decent sort of boy, poor 
fellow ! ” 

“ Why ' poor fellow ’ ? ” 

“ Well, one can’t but be sorry for a soldier who has 
unhappily lost a soldier’s first requisite.” 

“ Please don’t accuse him of having lost courage,” 
returned Kitty, with a quick frown ; “he certainly 
hasn’t done that. He is suffering, like ever so many 
others, from an ailment which he will soon throw off.” 
And, as Sidney remained silent, she repeated sharply, 
“ Which he will soon throw off.” 

“ Let us hope so ; but I am a bit of a physiologist 
amongst other things, and symptoms don’t escape me. 
I’m afraid young Hadow is too highly strung for the 
butcher’s trade. Well, he can’t help that. After all, 
what is physical courage ? Some of us have it, just as 
some have physical strength, to others it is denied. 
The luckless devils are those who, like myself, can say 


KITTY^S HOLIDAY 63 

without vanity that they possess both, yet are able to 
use neither/' 

The drop of poison — if it was intended as such — 
was very skilfully dispensed. It did its work, and 
Kitty, (who likewise had a reluctant eye for symptoms), 
could feel no ill will towards the afflicted administrator 
of the dose 


CHAPTER VI 

SIDNEY’S SUCCESSES 

To fall in love is an experience which may happen at 
any time to any man and which does, as a matter of 
fact, occur at one time or another (generally many 
times) to all men. The consequences of the malady 
are serious or trifling according to the temperament 
of the individual attacked. In Sidney Maddison’s 
case they were pretty sure to be serious, both because 
he was not naturally susceptible and because when he 
wanted something, he wanted it very much indeed. 

He certainly had not begun by wanting to love or 
marry Kitty Stanfield, who was ill fitted for adjust- 
ment to his scheme of life. He was ambitious and 
poor ; his wife, if he was to marry, would have to bring 
him money or enhanced social standing or both ; he 
had no notion of allowing the loss of his heart to entail 
the loss of his head, nor was there any fear that such a 
catastrophe would ensue. So he had thought at the 
outset, relying upon his cool strength of will ; yet a 
time came when his will was converted into the servant 
of his passion. This change of condition he acquiesced 
in, since he could not help it, and thenceforth the 
question with him was no longer whether he should or 
should not obey the dictates of prudence, but whether 
64 


SlDNEY^S SUCCESSES 65 

passion or will or any other force could bring about 
what he so overwhelmingly desired. He looked for 
no quick or easy victory. The girl was kind to him, 
perhaps after a fashion attracted by him ; the reasons 
for that were not far to seek and were damping rather 
than encouraging. He greatly exaggerated his de- 
formity, telling himself unflinchingly and as a fact 
which must be faced that women do not fall in love 
with club-footed men. By her parents he would 
without doubt be opposed. Mrs. Stanfield made no 
secret of her personal antipathy ; the results of their 
elder daughter’s marriage had scarcely been such as 
to incline them towards a second Maddison alliance, 
nor had he any inducement to offer, unless it were that 
he was his brother’s heir presumptive. And Jack 
might live for many a year yet. Upon a dispassionate 
review of the whole situation, he concluded that, if 
he was to win, it could only be by means of a long, 
patient and wary siege. However, he meant to win. 
Of course he saw a would-be rival in Claude Hadow, 
and it might prove necessary to put the extinguisher 
upon that young gentleman ; but his was so evidently 
a case of calf-love, and Kitty so evidently treated it 
as such, that, for the time being at any rate, the young 
poet could hardly be deemed worth powder and shot. 
It was therefore with a show of amity which was not 
wholly feigned that he said to Claude, that evening : 

“ I wonder whether you would mind letting me see 
some of your unpublished poems. I have only read 
a few of the published ones, but they made me wish 
for more.” 

The young fellow was flattered, but diffident. Oh, 

5 


66 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


I don’t think I dare/’ he laughed. I’m afraid you 
wouldn’t be a very merciful critic.” 

” Well, I shall be an honest one, which is more to the 
purpose, and I’m vain enough to think myself qualified. 
I don’t set up to be infallible ; still, I might be able to 
give you a useful hint or two. Allow me the chance, 
anyhow. What about adjourning to the smoking- 
room, which we shall have to ourselves for the next 
hour, and letting me run my eye over your output ? ” 

As the General and Mrs. Stanfield had settled down 
to bridge with their son and daughter, this proposal 
was easy of execution, and in a comparatively short 
time Sidney Maddison had read enough to warrant him 
in saying to his companion : 

” Some of this is good — quite good. A certain 
amount, if you’ll forgive my bluntness, won’t do at all. 
What you need is to take more pains — a lot more 
pains.” 

” Oh, I suppose so,” sighed the young poet. ” Rolfe 
tells me, as you do, that I ought to take more pains, 
and I’m sure you’re both right. Only the trouble 
is that when I try to express things better I’m apt to 
doubt whether they are really worth expressing at all.” 

” That’s just where the reward of labour comes in. 
Chuck the doubtful things and you will make no great 
mistake. No man ever becomes an artist by leaving 
his inspirations in the rough, and you have the makings 
of a real artist in you. I say so deliberately.” 

Coming from Sidney Maddison, that was high praise, 
and his hearer was proportionately gratified. What 
was perhaps even more encouraging was that Sidney 
believed he could see his way to finding a publisher for 


SIDNEY^S SUCCESSES 


67 

poems which, with additions and emendations, could 
be developed into a sufficiently respectable volume. 

Not as they stand. A few of them, I tell you. 
plainly, had better be consigned to the waste-paper 
basket ; all, or nearly all, will want careful revision. 
Take your time, and let me see them once more when 
you think they are ready for the printers.” 

He added some technical admonitions the soundness 
of which could not be questioned and was, upon the 
whole, so benevolently stimulating that Claude could 
hardly find words to express his thanks. 

” You make me feel two inches taller,” the grateful 
youth declared. ” Whether I fail or not, it will always 
be something to remember that you patted me on 
the back.” 

” Don’t be in such a hurry,” returned the other, 
smiling ; ” my approval won’t make your fortune. 
As for failing, you are not likely to make a bad failure ; 
only you must bear in mind that not one poet in fifty 
wins the genuine approval of a public which, taking 
it all round, rather dislikes poetry. I’ll do my best 
for you when the time comes ; but that can’t be 
much.” 

Nobody can do much to assist the upward flight of 
a literary aspirant ; but Sidney Maddison had known 
very well how to add a little strength to his own pinions. 
It was all to the good that on the following morning 
Claude — ^just off to London to undergo periodical 
examination before a Medical Board — ^was able to 
inform Kitty gleefully what a ”real good sort” his 
mentor was. 

Maddison has bucked me up no end,” he confided 


68 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


to her. ‘‘ I'm to work harder and file down my rough 
edges ; but he sees publishers in the offing. Now 
it only remains for those wretched old doctors to 
certify me as fit again." 

The wretched old doctors would scarcely do that, 
Kitty feared ; but she was glad to find her con- 
valescent eager for future service and very sincerely 
grateful to Sidney for his prompt and satisfactory ful- 
filment of his promise. The latter, however, would not 
allow her to thank him. 

" We mustn’t count chickens before they are 
hatched," said he, " and eggs of this particular kind 
can only be hatched by the hen that laid them. As I 
told you, he isn’t a goose — ^far from it. More than that 
one can hardly venture to say as yet." 

" But what do you yourself think of him ? " the 
girl wanted to know. 

" What do I think of him ? Well, it would take some 
time to answer ; for I think quite a number of things 
about him, apart from the circumstance that he 
interests me. We’ll talk him over this evening if I 
may walk across the fields to meet you on your way 
back from the hospital." 

It was thus that Sidney made known his intention 
of spending another night at Marling Park. The 
house was such a hospitable one and he stood upon so 
intimate a footing there that even his reluctant hostess 
might be trusted to condone the acceptance of an 
invitation which had not been given. Sidney, for that 
matter, was not a troublesome guest. How he em- 
ployed himself during the day Mrs. Stanfield neither 
knew nor inquired ; her eyes were not offended by the 


SroNEY^S SUCCESSES 


69 

sight of him nor her ears by the sound of his voice. 
Had she guessed — ^but she was leagues away from form- 
ing any such surmise — ^that her daughter was his 
magnet, she would only have shrugged a compassionate 
pair of shoulders. Small risk was there of Kitty’s 
being captivated by Sidney Maddison I 

Kitty had, at any rate, a gay wave of her hand for 
the limping figure whose approach she descried when 
she emerged from the precincts of the hospital. She 
could generally manage to get through her day’s work 
in time for a refreshing homeward walk over the 
meadows about five o’clock, and generally somebody 
from home came to meet her. It might be Reggie or 
Claude or both ; but today London had claimed the 
two young men, and she was not indisposed to welcome 
their substitute. 

** You’re a standing miracle ! ” he exclaimed 
admiringly. “ One might suggest several ways of 
keeping as cool and fresh as you look through six or 
seven sultry hours, but I would defy anybody to guess 
that you had been cooking.” 

” It’s quite simple,” she answered ; ” Heaven has 
blessed me with a thick epidermis.” 

” Physically I daresay that is a valuable gift ; 
morally it’s invaluable. Heaven isn’t so kind to all 
the world. Witness your lyrical protege/' 

” Ah, tell me about him. How does he strike 
you ? ” 

” Well, that’s how he strikes me, to put it concisely. 
That’s the key-note of him. The poetic temperament, 
in short — ^with its usual drawbacks.” 

” I’m glad you recognise the poetic temperament 


70 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


in him. I know what you mean by the drawbacks ; 
you mean what you said yesterday. But there I don’t 
in the least agree with you. Shell-shock is a very 
different thing from funk.” 

” I never employed such an ugly word. Young 
Hadow has done his duty, I’m sure. Only it seems 
to me that his vocation is to be a poet, not a fighting 
man.” 

This did not satisfy Kitty, who affirmed that Claude 
was every whit as keen on soldiering as on versification. 
” He is going before the Medical Board today and 
praying that they may pass him.” 

” After the retreat from Mons,” observed Sidney, 
” I saw a wounded Guardsman who said to me, ‘ If 
I’ve got to go back, sir, I’ve got to go back ; but if 
any man tells you he wants any more of it, don’t you 
believe him.’ ” 

” Claude Hadow wants more of it,” the girl insisted. 

” Then let us hope that disappointment is not in 
store for him. Personally, I should be inclined to 
predict that the doctors will turn him down and that 
contemporary literature will be the gainer.” 

Sidney had said all that he proposed to say upon 
that side of his subject, and what he had to say with 
regard to its literary aspect was so generous that he 
speedily regained the favour which he had been in 
momentary danger of losing. 

” I shall remember all this and repeat it in a quarter 
where it will be valued,” Kitty said. ” Perhaps you 
are right in calling him thin-skinned ; what does it 
matter ? After all, it is no sin to have a humble opinion 
of one’s merits/’ 


SIDNEY^S SUCCESSES 71 

“If it were/" returned Sidney, “ I should be an 
even more miserable sinner than I am. Thank you 
for the salve, though it wasn’t meant for me.” 

He could always touch her by speeches of that sort. 
Very well she understood where his burden galled him, 
and nothing appeared to her more affecting than 
the spectacle of this bodily powerful, mentally capable 
man condemned by the Fates to a life of virtual 
inaction. For she was just as sure that Sidney would 
have risen to public eminence with his brother’s chances 
as she was that he would have fought bravely for his 
country but for his unhappy disablement. 

So, although Sidney was under no illusion as to the 
nature of her sentiments, (“ Women are as little given 
to making much of a man whom they love as they are 
to becoming enamoured of cripples,” he thought), 
he could yet feel that that pleasant, leisurely walk 
through green fields and by-paths had been cheaply 
purchased by the mendacious plea of sudden illness 
which had exempted him for twenty-four hours from 
attendance at his office. Not quite so pleasant was it 
to be overtaken in a narrow lane by Claude Hadow, 
back from London and making his way up from the 
railway station. 

“ No luck ! ” the young fellow announced dejectedly, 
in reply to Kitty’s interrogative gesture. “ They 
won’t hear of me — ^wouldn’t so much as listen to me. 
' Oh, go away,’ one old brute told me, ^ and thank your 
stars that you aren’t fit yet.’ And I could see by his 
nasty grin that he believed I was thankful in my 
heart.” 

That that was what Sidney Maddison believed was 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


72 

somehow apparent, even if his faint smile could not 
fairly be called the equivalent of a nasty grin. Such 
was the impression conveyed to his two neighbours, 
and it lingered with one of them, notwithstanding 
Kitty's quick rejoinder of — 

“ Oh, well, you needn’t be downhearted. To tell 
you the truth, I never expected them to pass you this 
time, and another thing which I was hardly bold enough 
to expect was to find Mr. Maddison a warm admirer 
of your poems. I won’t make you blush by repeating 
all that he has been saying ; but you shall hear when 
his back is turned.” 

An inarticulate murmur was as much as Claude 
could manage. Of course, if Maddison had spoken 
flatteringly of him, that was very nice and kind, but 
the smile which still flickered about Maddison ’s lips 
touched him on the raw. 

** I might as well chuck it ! ” was his despondent 
ejaculation, after the three had advanced a few yards. 
“ My beastly nerves have got the mastery over me ; 
that’s the long and short of the matter.” 

Kitty, who was in the act of surmounting a stile, 
paused on the top of it to shake her small fist at him. 
** Say that again, and I’ll be the death of you ! Have 
I coaxed and bullied you all this time only to be told 
that you contemplate throwing up the sponge ? Be 
ashamed of yourself ! ” 

** Oh, I’m ashamed of myself all right,” answered 
Claude, laughing nevertheless. “Go on bullying me ; 
I’ll confess that I deserve it.” 

Perhaps, for the time being, he stood in greater need 
of coaxing than of bullying, and perhaps Kitty thought 


SIDNEY^S SUCCESSES 


73 


so ; for she gave utterance to no more threats. She 
began, instead, to relate anecdotes of the unceasing 
squabbles which arose amongst the ladies in control 
of her hospital — how one had resigned because the 
Committee would not let her impart sectarian religious 
instruction to the patients, how another had indignantly 
demanded the instant dismissal of a nurse whom she 
had surprised bestowing a chaste salute upon a re- 
cumbent warrior, how she herself had got into trouble 
by declining to provide a third with a gratuitous hot 
luncheon. 

“ One of these days,’' remarked Sidney, you will 
discover that people who undertake peculiarly repul- 
sive duties to serve their fellow-creatures are asking 
for ingratitude. The more you expose yourself to 
inconvenience and discomfort the more convinced 
everybody will be that you do it because you like it. 
They would never dream of doing anything that they 
didn’t like"; so how can they suppose that you would ? 
It’s a safe rule ”. . . . 

But Sidney’s safe rule was to remain unformulated ; 
for a sudden ejaculation from Kitty cut him short. 

“ Good gracious ! ” she exclaimed, startled by a 
deep bellow arising out of the middle distance, I 
forgot all about the bull. Father warned me to keep 
away from this paddock. We had better beat a 
retreat.” 

She wheeled round as she spoke, only to have her 
arm gripped by Sidney, who saw in an instant that 
there would not be time to reach the stile which they 
had left a couple of hundred yards behind them. For 
the shorthorn bull, a recent purchase of General Stan- 


74 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


field’s, was already advancing towards the intruders 
in a series of short runs which portended mischief. 

'' Bolt for the fence ! ” Sidney commanded, pointing 
to a stout barrier of iron railings which was not far 
distant ; '' bolt as hard as you can lay legs ! ” 

It was so obviously the thing to be done that Kitty 
and Claude obeyed forthwith, the latter helping the 
former to scramble over the rails just as the bull made 
up his mind to charge. Not until after the great beast, 
thundering close upon their heels, had been brought 
to a standstill and was stamping in impotent rage 
did they realise that lame Sidney had been unable to 
imitate their flight. The bull, stationed between him 
and all chance of escape, did not for the moment 
notice that he had still one trespasser at his mercy ; 
but the respite was only momentary. Facing about, 
the angry animal descried, with a roar of challenge or 
triumph, his destined victim, who stood erect and 
watchful, waiting for what was certain to come. 

Oh,” gasped Kitty, he will be killed ! Can’t you 
help him ? Can’t you do anything ? ” 

Alas ! Claude was powerless. It was not fear in 
the ordinary sense of the word that paralysed him, but 
one of those mysterious attacks to which, for his woe, 
he had become liable under the stress of any sudden 
emotion and which, while they lasted, held him in 
abject subjection. In vain he tried to steady his 
shaking limbs ; in vain he strove with all his might to 
conquer the unconquerable. And there was not a 
second to be lost ! 

One glance was enough to tell Kitty what was the 
raatter — a glance which ^yas tp remain imprinted 


SIDNEY^S SUCCESSES 


75 

indelibly upon his memory and which he construed, no 
doubt, after a harsher fashion than he need have done, 
yet which did, at the very least, express agonised dis- 
appointment. Then the girl, turning her head away, 
had the privilege of witnessing a really marvellous 
exhibition of courage, agility and strength. Sidney, 
with his arms raised, met the bull’s onset, which he 
barely evaded by a nimble side-skip, and actually 
seized the beast by the horns, keeping a firm grasp 
upon them. But even Sidney’s powerful muscles could 
not save him in so unequal a contest. Instantly he 
was flung over the bull’s shoulder and so lay flat on 
his back while the animal, seemingly puzzled, stood 
beside him, blowing and snorting. Kitty tore off her 
hat and threw it down upon the grass, with the hoped- 
for effect of drawing away the bull’s attention, and 
Sidney, who had been cast somewhat nearer to the 
railings, rolled over and over towards them, without 
attempting to get up. Presently he had wriggled 
through them and was safe. 

The whole incident occupied a very short space of 
time. Sidney, a little bruised and out of breath, but 
not in the least agitated, only remarked, as he brushed 
his trousers with his hand : 

“ Well, there’s no harm done, except to your hat, 
which is past praying for, I’m afraid.” 

It was Claude who sank down on the ground, half 
fainting, and who had to suffer the additional humilia- 
tion of begging his companions to walk on and leave 
him. ” I shall be all right in a minute or two — I can’t 
help it ! Please don’t look at me.” 

They were fain to comply with his request. One 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


76 

of them, at any rate, knew that that was the most 
considerate course to adopt ; the other may have felt 
something of the concern and compassion depicted 
upon his face ; to neither perhaps was it possible just 
then to recognise the full measure of the tragedy which 
caused Claude to moan out in his solitude : 

This is final ! After this I can never hold up my 
head again ! 


CHAPTER VII 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 

If ever a man deserved to be stigmatised by his friend 
as an infernal blackguard, Jack Maddison did ; yet that 
friend had not judged him amiss in allowing a sediment 
of lingering good to his composition, and this commonly 
rose to the surface when he was enabled for a time to 
throw off the disorders brought upon him by his 
excesses. Thus, on awaking from a sound sleep on the 
next morning but one after his reception of Tristram 
Rolfe's visit and homily, he felt in a sufficiently good 
humour to take himself to task. No doubt he was a 
pretty bad husband. Not worse than heaps of other 
fellows, if it came to that, and a deuced sight better 
than some, seeing that his wife had all the things that 
women are supposed to covet. Still he had been a bit 
brutal with her — ^no getting away from it. Almost 
he was tempted to beg her pardon ; only then certain 
stinging remarks of hers came back to him and re- 
minded him that he also had something to forgive. 
Old Tristie didn’t know how nasty Blanche could be. 
He told himself that, upon the whole, the reconcilia- 
tion, if there was to be one, might wait. What he did 
not tell himself, because he was barely conscious of it, 
was that he was a trifle afraid of his disdainful spouse, 
77 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


78 

While he was breakfasting, Anne Pritchard came in, 
sourly respectful, to inquire on her mistress’s behalf 
how he was. 

'' What, hasn’t Mrs. Maddison gone down to Marling 
then ? ” he asked ; for Blanche and he lived so entirely 
apart that he seldom knew whether she was at home 
or not. 

“ No, sir, she haven’t,” Anne replied, adding, ” I 
believe she thought you was too ill to be left.” 

” Oh ! ” grunted Jack. “ Well, you can tell her 
I’m as fit as a flea.” 

His temper was not improved by this alleged solici- 
tude. Much Blanche cared about the state of his 
health ! Most likely she wanted to pose as a martyr and 
had represented to her people that it was he who had 
deprived her of her customary country week-end. 
One of the traits in Blanche’s character which riled 
him most was what he took for her love of futile 
humbug. He saw further evidence of that presently 
when he caught sight of her flitting past the window 
on her way to church. Her religion, too, was sheer 
humbug : otherwise she would have turned her cheek 
to the smiter or at least have shown a reasonable dis- 
position to give and take, instead of perpetually racking 
her brains to discover some fresh means of goading a 
man beyond all endurance. He himself had long 
ceased to pay any homage to religious observances, 
and if Sunday was objectionable to him, it was only 
because he was debarred by an idiotic rule from playing 
cards at his club on that day. He strolled over to his 
club later, limched there, partook freely of drinks in 
congenial company, looked in at Tattersall’s for an hour 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 79 

and dined at a restaurant in company which was 
likewise congenial. 

More than once in the course of the two days that 
followed he experienced the recurrence of a wish to 
arrive at rather more comfortable terms with his wife ; 
but her demeanour each time that they were brought 
into brief contact with one another was so glacial 
that he really did not know how to begin. You can't 
— dash it all !; — get upon terms of any kind with an 
iceberg. Yet — either because he had the remains of 
a conscience or because an armed truce was less toler- 
able to his nature than open fighting — he continued 
to cast about him for conciliatory devices, and as his 
imagination was limited by his experience, the idea 
which finally suggested itself to him struck him as 
promising well. No woman, said he to himself, with 
a chuckle, can hold out against jewellery ; so he 
purchased a pearl of great price, set as a pendant in 
a circlet of brilliants, and, fortified with this peace- 
offering, paid Blanche the unaccustomed compliment 
of joining her at the luncheon-table. 

The sight of his rubicund countenance gave her 
more surprise than pleasure ; but, soon perceiving 
that he was for once neither tipsy nor aggressive, she 
overcame her first feeling of apprehension and returned 
such answers as seemed to be expected to the racing 
intelligence which he imparted to her across the table. 
The subject was so far well chosen that her total 
ignorance of it precluded difference of opinion, and she 
readily accepted Jack's pronouncement that this damned 
silly suspension of all the chief events was bound 
to ruin every class of horse throughout the country. 


8o 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


Thus a semblance of amity was so satisfactorily sus- 
tained while the servants were in the room that Jack, 
who had been drinking port out of a claret-glass, found 
himself full of confidence and good humour as soon 
as they quitted it. Stumping round the table, he 
dropped heavily upon a chair at his wife’s elbow and 
opened proceedings with — 

'' I say, look here, Blanche, suppose we let bygones 
be bygones ? Sorry I put your back up the other 
day ; it was beastly bad form, I know, but — ^well, 
never mind ! Let’s kiss and be friends — ^what ? ” 

She shrank away from him in unconcealed dismay. 
He was capable, she knew, of affectionate reversions 
which were more odious to her than any insult or 
provocation. These demonstrations had become in- 
creasingly rare and she had hoped that they had 
ceased for ever ; but now his leering eyes caused her 
heart to sink. 

'' We can’t do that,” was her breathless response ; 
” don’t speak as if we could ! ” 

Jack had his rejoinder ready in his pocket. ” All 
right,” he answered, grinning broadly, ” I won’t ask 
for a kiss then. I only want to be friends, if you’ll 
be a good girl and let me. See what I’ve got for you.” 

If anything could have deepened her repugnance 
for the man, perhaps it would have been this pro- 
pitiatory gift ; but how was he to guess that the 
proffer of it gave to her sense the measure of the place 
which she held in his esteem ? He was so far from 
understanding anything of the kind that he was dumb- 
foundered by the gesture of repudiation with which 
she pushed the little satin case and its contents away. 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 8i 

“ I don’t quite know what you mean by being 
friends,” she said, ” but my friendship, whatever it 
may be worth, is not for sale.” 

” That’s polite ! ” he growled. 

''It is the truth, at all events. Nothing is more 
impossible than that you and I should be friends. 
All I ask is to be let alone.” 

'' Oh, that’s all, is it ? ” returned Jack, scowling. 
" Right you are ! Don’t say I haven’t done my best 
to get on with you, though. If you refuse my pearl, 
there are plenty of others who won’t turn up their 
noses at it, I can tell you.” 

'' I have no doubt of that, and I am sure it will 
be cast before — some more suitable person. As for 
me, I shall try to do my duty, as I always have. More 
you can’t in all conscience expect of me.” 

It was, at any rate, the utmost that she could con- 
cede. She had thought it all out and was clear in 
her mind as to what the exactions of duty were. 
Judged by received standards, she had been an 
exemplary wife. She was careful in the management 
of her husband’s household, saw to his material 
comfort and was prepared, if called upon, to nurse 
him in illness. In return, she claimed only to be 
treated with the outward consideration to which she 
was entitled. The divorce to which she was entitled 
(and for which in her heart she often yearned) she 
would not claim ; partly because she shrank from 
the equivocal status of a divorcee, but in a far greater 
degree because she deemed it incumbent upon her 
to submit to a lot which she had deliberately chosen. 
She had married Jack Maddison for better or for worse 
6 


82 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


and must take the consequences of her action. What- 
ever had been her motives for consenting to marry 
him, love had had no part in them. It seemed to 
her now that she had hated him from the very first, 
although he had not in the early days of their married 
life been so hatefully degraded. Well, she had to 
bear the penalty. She must not, however, be requested 
to take a bribe in condonation of his infidelities and 
affronts. Doubtless the women with whom he was 
wont to associate, and with whom he probably had 
occasional squabbles, were to be placated after such a 
fashion, and he had known no better than to class 
her with them ! She was sitting in the drawing- 
room, still smarting under an indignity which Jack, 
in view of her supreme contempt for him, should not 
have had power to make her resent when Tristram 
Rolfe was announced. 

What news from home ? ” she asked. “ They 
discussed me, I suppose.’' 

A little,” he answered. ” I don’t think anything 
was said that you would have minded hearing.” 
Then, after an anxious scrutiny of her pale face : 
** You haven’t anything to tell me that I shall like 
to hear, I’m afraid.” 

She hesitated for a moment before replying, ” Yes, 
there’s something. I daresay you will like to hear that 
your appeal to Jack was not made altogether in vain 
Perhaps he is going to behave less abominably ; I don’t 
know. He has made — advances. They took a curi- 
ously offensive form, as it happened ; but we won’t 
talk about it.” 

” I said what I could,” sighed Tristram. 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 83 

Oh, yes, I am sure you did ; but why should we 
talk about it ? Tell me when your new play is to be 
produced. Does Mr. AUingham accept it ? 

Tristram nodded. “ With a wry face. He says I 
am gambling upon my reputation, which of course is 
quite true ; but if one is to gamble, it must needs 
be with what one has in hand, and nothing short of 
my wretched reputation would float this adventurous 
bark. I think I may fairly risk a plunge at last, upon 
the chance of pleasing myself for once, if I don't please 
anybody else." 

She did not dissent. To her, as to him, his dramatic 
triumphs had been a source of gratification only in so 
far as they had conduced to his financial independence. 
She knew that they were not worthy of him ; her 
literary judgment was cultivated enough to make her 
a reverent admirer of the art to which his best powers 
were devoted ; she understood as well as anyone — 
better, perhaps, than most — ^what his aims and 
achievements had been. So that the ready compre- 
hension which he was sure of obtaining from her 
formed a bond of union between them that might 
have come into being even if he could have dismissed 
(as he could not) the memory of an old, unrequited 
love. Blanche, who had seen the manuscript of his 
play, had thought it amazingly clever and suggestive, 
though she fully realised that it was a leap in the dark 
and that the tremors of Mr. AUingham were not 
without justification. It might be true, as Tristram 
contended, that a play does not of necessity depend 
upon situations " and that dialogue is capable of 
being so handled as to capture and keep alive the 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


84 

interest of the audience ; only in order to accomplish 
that feat it has to be terse, brilliant, unexpected, and 
Tristram, when he applied his mind to serious work, 
was always prolix, often obscure. However, she gave 
no utterance to misgivings which, as she was well 
aware, could effect nothing beyond causing him 
distress. 

'' You have certainly earned the right to challenge 
the intelligence of playgoers ; if they don’t respond, 
it will be because they are short of intelligence,” was 
her comment upon his plea for self-expression. 

” Ah,” he returned, smiling, ” that’s what one’s 
vanity whispers ; but is it true, do you think ? Isn’t 
it true that really good work imposes itself, whether 
it speaks to quick or dull ears ? ” 

She might have told him that his novels, for all their 
admitted ability, offered evidence to the contrary : 
what she did was to remind him of the difficulty which 
every innovator has experienced in gaining so much 
as a hearing from a convention-ridden public. ” You 
are breaking fresh ground and trying to widen the 
whole horizon of the British stage. Hit or miss, the 
attempt is worth making. Besides, you have got to 
make it ; it’s a part of the development of your 
genius.” 

She firmly believed in his genius, and he, too, had 
as much intermittent faith in it as was needed to 
render him submissive to its apparent behests. More- 
over, he was the more disposed to enlarge upon a 
topic as to which they were of one mind because he 
dreaded another — ^always hovering in the background 
— ^with regard to which their views were not the same. 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 85 

But Sidney’s entrance, after they had been conversing 
for some little time, brought him abruptly to his feet. 
The last thing that he desired was to hear his play 
dissected by that shrewd and worldly-wise critic, and 
to share Blanche’s company with a third person was 
to rob it of half its charm. 

Sidney, left in possession of the field, was as amiable 
as he always made a point of being with his sister-in- 
law. Their meetings were not frequent ; but she did 
not dislike him, sometimes consulted him and was 
aware of his being on her side in her domestic miseries. 

Why didn’t you join us at Marling ? ” he began. 
“ The change would have done you good and everybody 
missed you.” 

” I shirked it,” she frankly replied. ” Everybody 
means to be kind, but everybody pesters me to take 
a step which I am not going to take.” 

Sidney had not been one of the advocates of such a 
step. Few things would have suited Sidney’s book 
so ill as a divorced brother, free to marry again and 
beget an heir. He said : 

” You have scruples which perhaps I shouldn’t have 
if I were in your place, though I can enter into them. 
But I wish Jack were more worthy of your patience 
and forbearance.” 

” I can’t pretend to be patient or forbearing,” she 
answered. ” He did try to make his peace with me 
to-day ; but in such a way ! . . . Still it’s only fair 
to him to admit that he tried. It was because of what 
Tristram Rolfe said to him.” 

Sidney scrutinised her with one of his ambiguous 
smiles. ” Doesn’t Rolfe run some risk of burning 


86 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

his fingers by thrusting them into the fire ? he 
suggested. 

“ I am to blame if he does. I know it goes against 
the grain with him to interfere. He only consented to 
speak to Jack when I begged him.*' 

Poor old Rolfe ! Of course he can’t refuse you 
anything,” observed Sidney, and took note of a very 
slight flush which rose to Blanche’s pale cheeks. He 
went on, after a moment : “ I’m truly sorry for you ; 
but what use is there in being sorry ? One has to face 
the fact that Jack is morally incurable. Sometimes I 
am almost tempted to wish that he were physically 
incurable into the bargain.” 

Again Blanche coloured faintly, and again he noted 
that symptom, gathering from it that the same wish 
might have insinuated itself into her mind. 

Well, naturally it must have done so ; she would 
have been scarcely human if it hadn’t. Sidney’s con- 
ception of human nature was not an exalted one ; he 
judged his fellow-mortals, as we all must, partly from 
observation of them, partly from knowledge of what he 
himself was. , When he had concluded his visit, he 
walked away pensively, revolving various contingencies 
in his thoughts. What, for instance, might be the 
probable figure of Blanche’s jointure ? What, indeed, 
were the testamentary dispositions which Jack, who 
was bound by no law of entail, was likely to have 
made ? It was with no expectation of receiving an 
answer to queries in which he was deeply interested 
that he accosted his brother, whom he encountered 
striding across the Green Park, and who replied im- 
patiently to a more obvious one with — 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 87 

Oh, I'm all right — ^as right as I ever was in my 
life ! I don't know what the deuce people mean by 
shaking their heads at me as if I was a dead 'un." 

Sidney, nevertheless, shook his. You have a 
powerful constitution. Jack," said he, ‘‘but you're in 
a fair way to ruin it. It will let you down badly one 
of these days, you'll find. Now tell me to mind my 
own business." 

“ It's your business right enough," returned his 
brother, with unlooked-for discernment. “ The sooner 
I go out the sooner you step into my shoes — ^what ? " 

“ At that rate," observed Sidney composedly, “ your 
forcing the pace ought to please me." 

“ Blest if I know why it shouldn't I've no use for 
your good advice, anyhow, nor for Tristie Rolfe’s 
either." 

“ Ah, Rolfe ! " said Sidney, smiling. “If he wants 
to keep you alive. I'll agree that he must be dis- 
interested." 

“ Why ? I haven't left him a penny." 

“ I don't imagine that he expects to inherit any 
money from you." 

“ What do you call him disinterested for, then ? " 

“ Well, it isn't only money that a man leaves behind 
him when he departs. There may be another kind of 
inheritance of which you can't disappoint our friend." 

It was strange that Jack Maddison should never 
have had an inkling of such possible expectations, and 
perhaps — considering how bemused his faculties gener- 
ally were — it was still more strange that his brother's 
meaning should have flashed upon him in an instant 
like a revelation. His red face purpled, his eyes 


88 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


gleamed, and it was in a voice hoarse with wrath that 
he exclaimed : 

What’s that you say ? You needn’t say it again, 
though. I understand well enough, and, by God, if 
you’re right, he shall be disappointed ! ” 

Sidney essayed to quell the storm which he had half 
inadvertently aroused. “ My dear fellow, I daresay 
I am altogether wrong. One sees what one can’t help 
seeing, that’s all. It doesn’t follow that because 
Blanche and Rolfe are sworn allies they are anything 
more.” 

But Jack was not to be appeased. He broke out 
into stammering denunciations of his wife, against 
whom he seemed to be more incensed than against his 
friend. He declared that if he had given her reason to 
complain of him — and he did not deny that he had — 
the fault had been as much hers as his. ” I do my 
level best to make amends to her, and she spits in my 
face ! This very day I wanted to give her a ripping 
big pearl” .... 

” And even that wouldn’t do ? You surprise me.” 

” You wouldn’t be surprised if you knew her better. 
What she wants is to get me to drink myself to death, 
and now I jolly well see why ! Divorce ? — ^not for 
her, thank you ! Much better fun to be a rich widow — 
what ? But I’ll spoil that little game. She shall find 
that if she marries again, it’ll be without any of my 
money in her pocket.” 

This was good hearing for Sidney, who had obtained 
all the information that he could have desired and who 
once more disclaimed the smallest intention of making 
mischief. He begged that careless and over-hasty 


A REBUFF AND A REVELATION 89 

words of his might not be taken as implying anything 
in the nature of an accusation. He was sorry thaf he 
had let them escape him and he hoped Jack would 
forget them. 

It was not unlikely that Jack, whose emotions were 
apt to be evanescent, would forget an ugly insinuation ; 
yet, upon the whole, he did not think that Jack was 
likely to forget the insertion of a not unusual clause 
in his will. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 

Kitty Stanfield was not so dull-witted as to be 
ignorant that she had an ardent young adorer in Claude 
Hadow ; but the circumstance did not present itself 
to her as one of much serious import. She was pretty 
enough to have had various adorers, most of them 
young, all temporarily ardent, and although a few had 
appeared to be cast into abysses of despair by rejection, 
she had observed that recovery of health and spirits 
had in no case been slow. In no case had her own 
heart been touched, unless perhaps — ^just a little — in 
Claude’s. She had gone so far as to wonder whether 
the real affection that she had for him was capable of 
ripening into love and had concluded that, if it was, 
the evolution was still in a safely embryonic phase. 
Some lurking doubts of hers, which Sidney had adroitly 
confirmed, served to hold her feelings definitely in 
abeyance ; for of course she could never marry a man 
who lacked courage. Then came that unhappy 
episode of the encounter with the bull, which at least 
proved to demonstration that Sidney had the manly 
attributes of valour and presence of mind, if it did 'not 
necessarily prove his junior to be devoid of them. 
Not necessarily ; for she well understood that a victim 

90 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 


91 


of shell-shock is not his own master. Yet it was not 
quite easy to pardon Claude, impossible to repress a 
bitter sense of disappointment at the spectacle of his 
collapse. 

Sidney, limping beside her while she stepped at a 
quick pace towards the house, earned her additional 
gratitude by refraining from offering her any excuse 
for excuses. Obviously nothing could be said to any 
purpose, nor did he say anything about their adventure 
to her father and mother, who were having tea on the 
lawn ; but she could do no less than relate the part 
that he had played in it. 

God bless my soul ! ” exclaimed the General, 
much impressed. '' Caught hold of the brute and held 
him, did he ? Never heard of such a thing ! Upon my 
word, Sidney, you have some pluck, and I must say, 
Kitty, that you have some luck ! Didn’t I tell you not 
to cross that field ? ” 

'' You did,” Kitty penitently owned, ” and I clean 
forgot. I’m sorry.” 

” Not half as sorry as you would have been if you 
hadn’t had a matador at hand to save your skin,” 
grumbled her father. ” You ought to give them a 
show in the bull-ring at Madrid, Sidney ; you would 
have all the spectators shying down their hats to you.” 

” Miss Stanfield did throw down hers,” remarked 
Sidney, ”and I believe she saved my skin by doing so 
just in the nick of time.'' 

She had not saved his skin from being black and blue ; 
but he said nothing about that and displayed a tact 
which Kitty could not but appreciate by imitating her 
reticence in respect of another subject to which she had 


92 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


made no allusion. Claude’s name was not mentioned, 
was not going to be mentioned, nor need anybody, 
save those who had witnessed it, ever hear of the poor 
young fellow’s lamentable breakdown. That was 
generosity, and it had to be acknowledged and admired 
as such ; yet her partnership with Sidney in a secret 
which laid her under a sort of obligation to him did 
not fail to inflict a passing twinge upon the girl’s pride. 
Or was it, perchance, Claude’s pride that thus vicari- 
ously suffered ? 

Claude would have told her that he had none left. 
When he slunk into the house, having completely 
shaken off the physical attack which had overwhelmed 
him, he was as near to wishing himself dead as any sane 
mortal ever is. What, indeed, was the good of being 
alive if at any moment one was liable to look and 
behave like a rank coward ? That he was not answerable 
for what the utmost exertion of his will could not 
avert was no consolation. Kitty might, and probably 
would, try to exonerate him, but he had seen in her 
eyes that she would not be able to help despising him. 
She would be right too. Say what doctors may, it is 
despicable to be at the mercy of your nervous system, 
and there is nothing practical to choose between the 
reality of blue funk and the outward signs of it. It 
was with the calmness of utter despondency and self- 
disgust that he dressed for dinner and went downstairs 
to join a little company of whose pity and leniency he 
felt assured in advance. Not until he had taken his 
place at the dinner-table did it dawn upon him that 
two of their number had already carried commiseration 
to a pitch which he neither deserved nor desired. The 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 


93 

General, still full of Sidney’s prowess, wanted to know 
whether he had heard of what had happened and was 
embarking upon a vivid narrative when his hearer, 
flushing suddenly, struck in with — 

“ You evidently haven’t been told that I was there 
and saw it all. I didn’t lend a hand — I couldn’t. One 
of my beastly fits of shaking paralysis. Very kind of 
them to have drawn a veil over it, but I’d rather not 
hide the truth.” 

The truth was that he could not think any attempt 
to conceal his disgrace kind. The attempt only 
showed that the disgrace was felt to be real, and if 
any additional proof of that had been needed, the silence 
which followed his avowal would have supplied it. 
The General’s interrupted panegyric was not resumed, 
and soon Claude found himself taking part without 
difficulty in a conversation which was resolutely 
diverted from embarrassing topics. When you have 
lost everything in the world that you care for, com- 
posure is not hard of attainment. 

Kitty avoided him throughout the evening ; but 
before bedtime Mrs. Stanfield, who of course saw, as 
all the others did, what his mental condition was, risked 
a word of comfort. 

” Don’t fret, my dear boy ; nobody thinks a pin the 
worse of you because, through no fault of your own, you 
missed an opportunity which somebody else grabbed. 
Between you and me, though, I think a lot worse of the 
bull for having missed his. To get the chance of tossing 
Sidney Maddison sky-high and then to let it slip ! But 
bulls have no intelligence.” 

Some human beings have not much., Kitty, setting 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


94 

forth for the hospital the next morning and seeing 
Claude, who was wandering about the garden with 
a bowed head, took occasion to tell him rather sharply 
what she thought of his rational resources. 

** Why must you needs make us so uncomfortable 
last night ? Why on earth couldn’t you let sleeping 
dogs lie ? ” 

A sleeping dog,” he answered, lifting his heavy 
eyes to hers, ” may object to being kicked, and your 
silence was as good — or as bad — as a kick to me.” 

” What nonsense ! ” she returned. ” You are so 
absurdly touchy that there’s no pleasing you. Natur- 
ally Mr. Maddison and I thought ” . . . . 

” Oh, I know what you thought,” he broke in. ” I 
daresay it was natural that you should have wished to 
spare me and that you shouldn’t have understood 
that I might not wish to be spared.” 

If that thrust touched her on a weak spot, (for she 
did not like to be accused of clumsy clemency), it by 
no means allayed her irritation. ” Oh, well,” she 
said, ” I shall know better another time. Now let us 
think no more about yesterday, please.” 

Scant likelihood was there that either of them would 
contrive to be so wisely oblivious ; but Kitty had at 
all events closed his lips as effectually as she had her 
own, and after that she made no reference, direct or 
indirect, to a painful incident. During the next few 
days she demeaned herself towards the young man 
as though nothing had occurred to cloud their former 
pleasant intimacy ; but she did not come across him 
often nor did he meet her on her homeward walks, 
as of yore. He, for his part, accepted as absolutely 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 


95 

final the extinction of hopes which, after all, had at 
no time verged upon confidence. One accepts what 
must be accepted — one’s own wretched, incurable 
disabilities with the rest. A single hope remained to 
him. If he could but obtain permission to return to 
the front and if he had the luck to get himself killed 
there, his memory surely would be cleansed from the 
black stain of poltroonery ! 

In that woebegone frame of mind he was little 
elated by a note from Sidney Maddison, asking him 
to despatch his amended M.S.S. to London ; but he 
obeyed instructions, and after a day or two he received 
an encouraging telegram : ** Come and see me to- 
morrow morning early. Believe I have found a 
publisher.” 

Sidney, who had chambers in the vicinity of White- 
hall, was just finishing his breakfast when the youth 
whose unsmiling countenance brought a flitting smile 
to his own walked in. He guessed at once what was 
wrong with an aspirant who should have been looking 
brightly sanguine ; but if he had had to assist in the 
damping of some vain aspirations, he felt pleasure — 
or said he did — in fostering more legitimate ones. 

Well,” he began, I am glad to tell you that 
Longfield, to whom I showed your poems, thinks 
well enough of them to make you an offer. Not a 
dazzling pecuniary offer ; but that we could hardly 
look for. Longfield, as perhaps you know, is a good 
pubhsher and his name will be worth something to 
you. He suggests the omission of certain lines and 
I have taken the liberty of changing — ^for the better, 
I hope — certain others. You shall see in a minute 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


96 

where I haven’t feared to tread. Neither he nor I 
insist ; we only venture, on the strength of literary 
experience, to submit what seem to us to be improve- 
ments.” 

Claude could but try to express the gratitude that 
he felt. He had not been able wholly to overcome 
the soreness engendered by Sidney’s association with 
Kitty in a well-meant endeavour to shield him from 
obloquy ; yet he had to acknowledge that this unsought 
patron of his had been at some pains to do him a 
genuine service. 

I’m sure, without having seen them, that your 
alterations are improvements,” he declared. “ It’s 
more than good of you to have taken so much trouble 
for me.” 

“ Oh, you had better see them,” Sidney returned, 
laughing. Very likely, when you do, you will 
change your opinion.” 

It was true that subsequent examination of his 
productions, which had been rather more ruthlessly 
pruned and transformed than Sidney had led him to 
anticipate, left the author with a predilection in favour 
of himself ; but he was modest and sensible enough 
to be aware that no man can be a fair judge of his 
own work ; so he bowed in every instance to censor- 
ship which was doubtless competent. 

“ You’re not convinced,” Sidney ended by observing ; 
“ it would be a miracle if you were. But you’re 
teachable, and that’s better. At least, I suppose it’s 
better,” he added, with a shrug. Critics, of course, 
rank below creators ; as a rule, they overstep their 
function when they substitute something of their 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 


97 


own for something that they see to be not quite right. 
All the same, you may learn a little from us if you’ll 
deign to stoop to our level.” 

” I wish,” broke out Claude impetuously, ” with all 
my heart I wish that I could rise to your level ! Yours 
personally, I mean. I'd much sooner be seen catching 
a bull by the horns than being crowned Poet Laureate.” 

“ He knew that it was a silly sort of thing to say ; 
but he felt on a sudden irresistibly impelled to make 
what was in its essence an appeal. This cool, shrewd, 
not unkindly appraiser of men had realised perhaps 
that he was no coward. A word or two would have 
constituted him Sidney Maddison's debtor to a far 
deeper extent than the substantial assistance which 
he had received. The desired words, however, were 
not forthcoming. 

” Thank you,” answered Sidney drily, ” but if I 
prided myself upon anything, it wouldn't be muscular 
force. I didn’t give myself a powerful torso and I 
have no ambition to try conclusions again with a 
powerful toro. When you have won your poetic 
laurels you won’t be disposed to envy a prize-fighter. 
But you say you would like to be seen performing 
feats of strength. Seen by whom ? Perhaps that’s 
the important question, perhaps it isn't. I should 
say that for you the important thing is to make the 
most of the endowments that you have.” 

Claude coloured and dropped his eyes under the 
other’s steady gaze, in which there was just a faint 
hint of derision. But Sidney, it seemed, had not 
meant to administer a snub ; for he resumed briskly : 

“ Well, I’ve enjoyed our talk, and I must say you 

7 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


98 

are more amenable than any poet I’ve ever met or 
heard of before. Now it’s time for me to be off to 
my House of Bondage. May I understand, then, 
that I am at liberty to conclude an agreement for 
you with Longfield ? ” 

Claude Hadow had the intuitions with which kind 
Nature would appear sometimes to dower the young 
as an offset to their inexperience ; but, being young, 
he placed little reliance upon these, and, as he walked 
away in the sunshine, he took himself to task for being 
sensible of a vague antipathy to his benefactor. 

Beastly ungrateful,” he mused. “ I suppose the 
true truth is that he put me off by not saying some- 
thing that he couldn’t say. Small blame to him ! I 
oughtn’t to have been such an infernal ass as to 
imagine that he could.” 

But one might, without being an ass at all, count 
upon what Tristram Rolfe would say, and the words 
of a thick-and-thin friend, partial and biassed though 
they may be, fall as refreshingly upon a vexed soul 
as dew upon parched ground. Claude would in any 
case have hastened to impart the news that he had 
secured a publisher to one who would assuredly be 
glad to hear it, and he kept that part of his errand 
uppermost in mind while he marched along the 
Embankment beside the glittering Thames ; for he 
did not want to have the air of a hurt child, running 
for comfort to its nurse. We’ll have the smiles 
before the tears,” said he to himself ; “ it’s more 
becoming.” 

He reckoned, however, without Tristram’s unerring 
ken of what might lurk beneath forced smiles, and 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 


99 


so it was that within a few minutes of his admission 
to the latter’s Chelsea flat he let himself go in response 
to a concerned query of, “ My dear fellow, what’s the 
trouble ? ” He let himself go unreservedly, as his 
temperament no less than his distress prompted him 
to do. Indeed he could have kept nothing back 
that would not have been at once conjectured ; so 
why should he not disclose the full extent of the 
calamity which had befallen him ? Tristram heard 
him out silently and, when he had made an end of 
speaking, remarked : 

“ I don’t wonder at your being cast down ; for 
Fortune could hardly have treated you worse. But 
when you talk about ' a pitiful exhibition of cowardice,’ 
you’re talking nonsense and you know it.” 

” But she doesn’t,” objected Claude, with a sigh. 

“Oh,, yes, she does; she would have behaved 
quite differently if she didn’t. Likewise she would 
be a fool, instead of being what she is — a hasty, high- 
spirited young woman who can’t resist avenging herself 
upon untoward events by making her neighbours pay 
toll. Leave her alone ; I suspect that she is already 
ashamed in her heart. You have lost ground with 
her. I’ll allow ; but you have your retort in reserve, 
and she’ll get it on the day when you are ordered off 
to the front.” 

Claude did not believe that he would ever be sent 
to the front again. He said the accursed doctors were 
right and Kitty was right. His nerve was gone, and 
he couldn’t see what odds it made whether you called 
that cowardice or described it by some more merciful 
name. It took a good deal of time and patience to 


100 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


put him into better heart, and Tristram’s task was 
rendered harder by the circumstance that he himself 
felt no assurance as to the girl’s sentiments. However, 
he was not without hope that she was sharp enough 
to see through Sidney Maddison. 

Our friend Sidney,” he observed, (forgetting for 
the moment that his hearer might not have an equal 
share of mother-wit), “has certainly contrived to 
put a spoke in your wheel. I suppose he must be 
acquitted of having gone through a private rehearsal 
with that bull, but one has to credit him with having 
known how to take occasion by the hand as well 
as a bull by the horns.” 

“ Oh, but he never wanted to serve me an ill turn,” 
Claude protested in surprise ; “ why should he ? 

On the contrary, he meant to be considerate — and so 
he was. If he has put a spoke in my wheel, it has 
been to hoist it out of the ruts. I was going to tell 
you that he has been most kind and encouraging 
about my attempts to lisp in numbers. More than 
that, he has actually induced Mr. Longfield to bring 
them out in a volume. Longfield is a decent pub- 
lisher, isn’t he ? ” 

“ I believe so,” answered Tristram, perhaps a trifle 
piqued by the filching of his 'protege from him, but 
conscious, nevertheless, of having been efficiently 
replaced. “ What sort of a bargain does he sug- 
gest ? ” 

The bargain was probably as good a one as a tyro 
could hope to make. Tristram nodded approval at 
it, though he could not help wondering where Sidney 
came in The inquiry was bound to present itself 


lOI 


SPOKES IN THE WHEEL 

to anyone who knew Sidney Maddison ; yet the 
answer, as Tristram soon perceived, was not far to 
seek. Sidney was in love with Kitty Stanfield. Odd 
and improbable, but a visible fact. That being so, 
what course would astute Sidney be apt to adopt in 
order to ingratiate himself with a girl who did not 
love him and who might be on the road towards loving 
a younger and more attractive suitor ? Well, he 
would force her to draw comparisons. Luck had 
already enabled him to do so in one way ; kindly 
patronage of a negligible competitor (it would be his 
aim to exhibit young Hadow as negligible) might tell 
for him in another. He would be in a position to 
say, with careless good humour, Oh, I knew you had 
a liking for the lad, and he’s rather helpless ; so I 
thought I would do what I could for him.” Women 
are susceptible to evidences of force and capability. 
Kitty would not love Sidney because he was Claude’s 
superior, though it was easy to imagine her put out 
of conceit with a rival whom he did not even con- 
descend to recognise as such. It was not — upon 
second thoughts — quite so easy to imagine her seeing 
through ” the schemer. But it was wiser to withhold 
these apprehensions from the unsuspecting Claude ; 
so Tristram only said : 

The best of good luck to you ! I believe in you, 
you know, and I’m glad your foot is on the first rung 
of the ladder to fame.” 

“ But you don’t much believe in Maddison,” Claude 
returned. “ Why not ? What mates you think that 
he has a grudge against me ? ” 

It was obvious that no good purpose could be served 


102 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

by answering that question, and Tristram limited 
himself to replying : 

I am not a trustworthy witness where Sidney 
Maddison is concerned. You may remember my 
telling you that I couldn’t like him, in spite of the fact 
that I am undeniably in his debt. Possibly even in 
Consequence of that fact ; for one never plumbs the 
depths of one’s unadmitted meannesses. Suppose 
somebody had made your fortune by pointing out to 
you the way to play Jack Pudding — would you be 
profoundly grateful to him ? It might depend upon 
your power to reconcile yourself to the part. Any- 
how, there it is : I don’t like Sidney Maddison.” 

‘"Then,” returned Claude, in a burst of confidence, 
we’re a thankless pair ; for I’m afraid I don’t like 
him either. All the same, I know I ought to like him.” 

That may be,” Tristram assented ; time will 
show. Meanwhile, if you will be advised by me, you 
will allow Miss Kitty time to find out for herself 
whether she likes you or not. It’s quite possible that 
she doesn’t know yet ; but I’ll venture to say for her 
that she won’t be influenced one way or the other by 
that unfortunate little episode which you choose to set 
down as conclusive.” 


CHAPTER IX 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 

Sidney Maddison had perhaps some reason to rub 
his hands at the cleverness which had drawn from his 
brother statements of a highly reassuring order ; but 
upon reflection he regretted having committed himself 
to a disquieting one in return. He had no wish to 
make an enemy of his sister-in-law, and nothing was 
more probable than that Jack, who was heading for 
Eaton Square, would proceed forthwith to hurl in- 
jurious accusations at Blanche's head, with results 
which might be uncomfortable for an informer. That, 
in fact, was just what Jack did. On reaching home, 
he stormed straight into the drawingroom where his 
wife was seated, with an open book on her knees, and 
blurted out — 

Here ! — Tve something to say to you." 

" Something more ? " she asked, raising her tired 
eyes. " I thought enough had been said for one day." 

"You made a mistake, then. You do make mis- 
takes sometimes, let me tell you. Strikes me that, 
from your own point of view, you make one when you 
treat me like a worm ; because you might bear in mind 
that if it comes to open war, I'm rather too many guns 
for you. But that's by the way." 

103 


104 the obstinate LADY 

So I suppose that is not what you came here to 
say ? ” 

No, it isn’t. What I have to say is that I think 
I’ve put up with this sentimental foolery between you 
and Tristram Rolfe about as long as I care to.” 

She surveyed him with mingled scorn and incredulity. 
” Surely,” she said, ” you don’t suspect me of a senti- 
mental affection for Tristram Rolfe ! ” 

” If I did,” Jack returned, thrusting his fists into his 
pockets and glaring down at her, “ I shouldn’t be the 
only one. The whole world isn’t blind, mind you. 
What does the world always think when it sees a man 
tied to a woman’s apron-strings ? ” 

He fancied that she turned a shade paler ; but her 
rejoinder was prompt and merely contemptuous. ” It 
seems that some one has been sa3dng malicious things 
to you. Very likely malicious things are said. It can’t 
be really necessary to tell you that even if Tristram 
had ever thought of me in the way that you mean — 
which is absurd — he would be the last man in the 
world to have an intrigue with a married woman.” 

” Trust no man when there’s a woman in the case,” 
was Jack’s grinning retort. 

'' Probably you trust neither men nor women ; I 
can understand that. But you certainly believe in 
this insinuation as little as you would mind if it were 
true. It is only that you think you can hurt me by 
depriving me of my truest and dearest friend. You 
are quite right ; you can give yourself that pleasure 
and at the same time you will lose the only friend 
worthy of the name who remains to you.” 

” That’s as may be,” answered Jack doggedly. 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 105 

Now I’ve a word of warning for you. You say I 
shouldn’t mind if I knew for a fact that Tristie Rolfe 
was your lover. Well, I don’t know that I should and 
I don’t know that he is. I’m not going to pay him 
for taking my place, though ; so if you’re counting 
upon my death, as I suspect you are, you may as well 
be told how you’ll stand when I quit. You’ll come 
into five thousand a year — ^and a jolly handsome pro- 
vision too ! — ^but you’ll forfeit your income on the day 
when you marry again. You can’t complain of that. 
What Tristie is worth in these times I’m dashed if 
I know ; maybe a couple of thousand a year, and 
deuced precarious at that. Now you can judge for 
yourself whether you would gain much by getting rid 
of me.” 

” I think you must have been drinking,” said 
Blanche coldly. ” I have never for one moment con- 
templated what might happen if I were to survive you ; 
but after the experience that I have had, I should 
scarcely be tempted to marry a second time.” 

He was not disinclined to believe her. In his view 
she was too cold-blooded to know what love meant 
and too self-indulgent (witness her fastidious taste for 
costly luxuries) to desire any reduction of income. 
As the product of some confused cogitation, he came 
out with — 

” I don’t know whether I shall deprive you of your 
precious friend or not ; I shall have to see about it. 
Don’t you set him on to jaw me again, that’s all.” 

” I shall not do anything of the kind again,” she 
answered. ” He told me that it would be useless.” 

” He wasn’t far wrong. I had a good try at making 


io6 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

things up with you this morning, anyhow. That was 
useless if you like ! The long and the short of it is that 
you hate me.” 

She made no reply. Hate him she did ; yet if pride 
had not restrained her, she would have been almost 
ready to say something propitiatory, so inwardly dis- 
mayed had she been by a threat which was liable to be 
carried into effect at any time. 

Jack, after scowling at her and muttering, marched 
out of the room. He had entered it without definite 
purpose ; he left it with a vague sense of having been 
worsted, though he was pretty sure that his wife had 
had a nasty scare. There was some satisfaction to 
be got out of that. 

One source of fleeting satisfaction was ever open to 
a man who had made himself the slave of alternate fits 
of hilarity and blue devils. Jack dined and supped 
uproariously that night ; as a consequence of which he 
woke at an early hour with a recurrence of the aches 
and pains from which he had lately been delivered. 
He tossed and groaned until his valet came to call him, 
when he said in a lamentable voice : 

Jarvis, I’m bad again — cursedly bad ! ” 

'' The old trouble, sir ? ” the man sympathisingly 
inquired. 

” Yes ; only a devilish sight worse. Here, you’d 
better telephone to Dr. Mackwood. Tell him to look 
sharp. Say I’m in hell.” 

” Very good, sir,” answered Jarvis, and remarked 
under his breath on the way downstairs, ” It’s where 
he’ll be before long if he don’t mind. What else can 
he expect ?— mixing his drinks the way he does ! ” 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 107 

What Jack fully expected and duly received was a 
jobation from the plump, middle-aged physician who 
was soon standing over him. What he had not quite 
expected, (for Dr. Mackwood’s rebukes were, generally 
speaking, of a mild and tolerant order), was to be 
informed in so many words that he was seriously ill. 
At the moment he was in too great pain to care much 
about anything else ; but after the administration of 
certain tabloids which gave him speedy relief he felt 
alarmed enough to ask : 

How do you mean ' seriously,’ doctor ? ” 

I mean,” replied Dr. Mackwood, with a grave face, 
that your life is in danger. Of course the sciatica 
from which you are now suffering can be treated and, 
with ordinary prudence on your part, cured ; but I 
think the time has come, Mr. Maddison, when you ought 
to be warned that there are some indications of organic 
disease.” 

Eh ? — ^what sort of a disease ? ” the apprehensive 
patient wanted to know. 

Dr. Mackwood declined to be more specific. It 
may be one of several diseases ; for the present I will 
only say that the indications exist and that it rests 
more with you than with me to check their develop- 
ment. You must consent to be an invalid, Mr. Maddi- 
son, and you must positively restrict yourself to a very 
small allowance of stimulants. Otherwise I can 
answer for nothing.” 

Dr. Johnson affirmed that the better a man is the 
more he fears death ; upon which showing Jack Maddi- 
son should have been able to face the prospect of dis- 
solution with tolerable fortitude. As a matter of fact, 


io8 TME OBSTINATE LADY 

Jack had, when younger, gaily risked his neck again 
and again in the hunting field and in point to point 
races ; yet his medical attendant, who knew him 
pretty well, was not far from sharing the opinion of old 
Anne Pritchard, who, it may be remembered, had 
rated him as a dirty coward/’ 

'' I have been giving your husband a fine fright,” 
Dr. Mackwood told Blanche before he left the house. 
” I did not go beyond the truth in what I said to him ; 
still I said more than I should have thought it advisable 
to say to the ordinary run of patients. I intimated, 
in short, that his life was at stake. Will you, please, 
second me ? He needs a firm and judicious nurse quite 
as much as he does a doctor.” 

Dr. Mackwood was not ignorant of the domestic 
situation in Eaton Square ; but he was aware that 
Mrs. Maddison might be relied upon to do what she 
would consider her duty. She repressed an involuntary 
shrinking movement and asked : 

''Is it the case that my husband’s life is at 
stake ? ” 

'' Well, yes. There is no immediate danger, but he 
had better be made to think that there is. Just now 
I believe you will find him submissive ; it may be 
another story in a day or two, if the attacks of pain 
which he is not very good at bearing diminish. I hope 
you understand, Mrs. Maddison ? ” 

Blanche understood well enough what was required 
of her. Of course she must obey instructions, whether 
or not they were to her liking, whether or not they 
promised to bring about the result aimed at. When 
the doctor had taken his leave, it crossed her mind that 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 109 

Jack, who had been given ^‘a fine fright,’’ might forget 
having done as much for her ; from the moment that 
his personal safety or comfort came into play he forgot 
everything else with such celerity ! But, in spite of 
Dr. Mackwood, she was not prepared to find him 
submissive. 

She found him not only submissive but piteously, 
whimperingly penitent. He said he was a dying man. 
He had got some dashed thing the matter inside and, 
though Mackwood wouldn’t tell him what it was, he 
knew he was about done for. Would Blanche be a 
dear girl and forgive him ? He had behaved like a 
beast to her ; but he was sorry — ^upon his soul he was ! — 
and if he lived, she should never have to complain of 
him again. He took back every word that he had said 
the day before ; he owned that if she wished him to die, 
he couldn’t wonder. But perhaps she didn’t quite 
wish that — what ? Surely she wasn’t going to leave 
him to servants in his misery, now that he begged her 
pardon from the bottom of his heart ! 

What did he precisely mean ? Very little of what 
he said, perhaps ; but he seemed to have got it into 
his bemused head that he was being punished for 
his offences and that condonation of these might 
effect a reprieve. In a word, he did not at all want 
to die, and was eager above everything to be assured 
that death was not in sight. Mindful of orders, 
Blanche withheld the solicited assurance ; but she 
could not withhold verbal pardon. Throughout her 
wretched married life she had recognised certain 
wifely observances as incumbent upon her. It was 
her right, she thought, to hold out for some semblance 


no 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


of external respect : that granted, she was ready to 
discharge such of a wife’s functions as might tend 
to her husband’s physical well-being. And for the 
next few days she did discharge them with a con- 
scientiousness which earned Jack’s only too demon- 
strative gratitude. How much more tolerable to her 
would have been that abject patient’s curses than his 
fulsome endearments ! However, she bore what she 
had to bear and helped him to bear spasms of sharp 
suffering which Dr. Mackwood was not over zealous 
to alleviate. 

Certainly, Mrs. Maddison,” the doctor said, in 
reply to a suggestion from Blanche, I could give 
him an opiate ; but I am not going to do that unless 
or until I am obliged. With a man of his propensities 
one has to look forward and beware of obvious 
risks.” 

One obvious risk against which no provision could 
be made was that Jack’s hardy constitution would 
pull him through a crisis before he had thoroughly 
assimilated its lesson, and this was in effect what 
occurred. A morning came when the sick man, free 
from pain for twenty-four hours, got out of bed, shook 
himself, stretched himself, vowed that he was ” as 
right as rain ” and snapped his fingers at physic and 
physicians. It was labour lost to reason with him 
now that he was no longer frightened ; all that could 
be extorted from him was a promise to stick to tem- 
perance, and upon that promise it was to be foreseen 
that a liberal interpretation was likely to be placed. 
Yet there did remain with him, in truth as well as 
in asseveration, a sense of his wife’s generosity. He 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER iii 


spoke sincerely when he called Blanche his good angel 
and was sincere in banishing all lingering distrust of 
her from his thoughts. Why he did not at the same 
time dismiss all distrust of his friend it might have 
puzzled him to say ; but then he would have been 
puzzled to define any of the workings of his unbalanced 
mind. Upon that clouded mind of his Sidney had 
produced an impression of which he could not get 
rid. Blanche was blameless ; he would take his 
oath of that ; but how about Tristram ? Never until 
recently had he imagined that his friend was or wished 
to be anything but his wife’s friend ; but now* he 
recalled a host of incidents, speeches, looks which 
should have enlightened him if he had not been blind. 
Bosh about friendship between a man and a woman I 
Always on the one side or the other there was some- 
thing beyond that. Perhaps, in view of Blanche’s 
blamelessness, it did not signify much ; still, say 
what you would, he had been humbugged by a man 
to whom his house had been thrown open. That 
sort of thing wasn’t cricket. He had a sore and 
angry feeling that he must "'have it out” with 
Tristram. 

Now, when Jack Maddison felt an inclination for 
no matter what, he was sure sooner or later to yield 
to it, and so it came to pass that one afternoon saw 
him striding off towards Chelsea, dimly bent upon 
some step which might lead to a quarrel or else, 
(possibly this was what in his heart he hoped for), 
to a cheering explanation. Quarrelsome though Jack 
was, his inmost desire was ever to be at amity with 
those about him. To stir up strife for the sake of 


II2 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


subsequent reconciliation is rather a feminine than 
a masculine characteristic ; but there are men whose 
inherent irascibility manifests and appeases itself 
after that odd fashion. 

Jack’s apparition in Tristram’s flat, where he was 
the rarest of visitors, would have sufficed to account 
for the surprise perceptible upon the faces of the 
two men who rose as he entered, had they not simul- 
taneously ascribed it to the fact of his being well 
enough to be up and about. He greeted them rather 
ungraciously ; for he had expected to find Tristram 
alone and he certainly had not expected to find his 
brother there. What was Sidney up to now ? he 
wondered — Sidney, who was always up to some game 
or other and whom it was queer to catch hobnobbing 
with the subject of his recent delation. Jack was 
not without his doubts of Sidney. Sidney, for that 
matter, was not without doubts of Jack, whose mission 
he uneasily surmised and resolved to frustrate, if 
possible. The elder brother responded to polite 
queries with a gruff counter-query of why they were 
addressed to him. 

“ Thought I was on my death -bed, I suppose. Well, 
it hasn’t come to that yet, you see. Do I look like a 
dying man ? — what ? ” 

He asked himself whether either or both of them 
hoped that he did ; but Tristram’s grave eyes told 
him no more than Sidney’s ironical, half-commiserating 
gaze. All three sat down, and Tristram, apparently 
resuming an interrupted debate, said to Sidney : 

You think Allingham is right, then ? ” 

I think,” Sidney replied, “ that you have cast our 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 113 

poor Allingham for a part which is absolutely beyond 
him. He won't make what you want him to make 
of it, for the conclusive reason that he can’t ; but 
he may, if he is let alone, be clever enough — ^within 
his limits — to make something of it.” 

It seemed that they had been discussing Tristram’s 
new play, and the discussion was kept up for some 
little time, though the playwright showed no great 
wish to protract it. Jack, listening inattentively, 
gathered that his brother was present in the character 
of AUingham’s emissary — gathered also that his 
brother meant to sit him out. But he, for his part, 
did not mean to be sat out, and perhaps it was because 
Sidney perceived this that he got up at length and 
limped towards the door, throwing over his shoulder, 
as a valedictory remark to the more tenacious visitor : 

” I haven’t neglected to inquire for you in Eaton 
Square, but I was told that you were too ill to see 
anyone.” 

” You were told much the same, I presume,” ob- 
served Jack, as soon as the door was shut. ” Or 
didn’t you ask ? ” 

I have seen Mrs. Maddison two or three times for 
a few minutes,” Tristram replied. '' She said you 
were making rapid progress.” 

” H’m ! I don’t know about rapid,” said Jack. 
“ I’ve been pretty bad, I can tell you ; but I’m a 
heap better now — thanks to her.” 

This was far from being the way in which he had 
proposed to approach his point. To be sure, he did 
not know very distinctly what his point was, nor 
why he felt impelled first of all to make it clear to 
8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


114 

Tristram that Blanche and he had buried the hatchet. 
Not much in the nature of clarity emerged from his 
rambling statement, save that Blanche had behaved 
like a trump and that he, on his side, was going to 
turn over a new leaf — ^yes, by God, he was ! Tristram, 
already aware that Blanche had behaved in the 
manner imposed upon her by the occasion and entirely 
sceptical as to the durability of her husband’s good 
resolutions, nodded assent from time to time and 
had the air of awaiting something further. Something 
further came on a sudden when Jack, shifting his 
position a little, was brought opposite to the broad 
writing-table, on which a full-length photograph of 
Blanche stood. If he had been seeking some opening 
for attack, there he had it. 

It isn’t every husband,” he began, with a pointed 
forefinger, ” who would see his wife’s photograph on 
another fellow’s table and say nothing about it.” 

Tristram’s swift and active imagination revealed 
the position to him in an instant and told him that a 
crisis of which he had never ignored the potentiality 
was imminent. 

What,” he calmly inquired, ”have you to say 
about it ? ” 

Jack’s reply, at first somewhat shamefaced, gathered 
vehemence and precision as his temper rose. He 
put his case coarsely — ^his nature and vocabulary 
would not suffer him to put it otherwise — yet his case 
was not devoid of plausibility, and, although he was 
careful to exonerate his wife, he had a direct question, 
as well as a very direct menace to address to his friend. 

Tristram, upon whom sentence of banishment from 


A THREAT FOR THE THREATENER 115 

Eaton Square would have fallen almost as a death- 
blow, had to pull himself together. Somebody — 
could it have been Sidney ?— had stirred up a dull- 
witted man’s mistrust, and with dulness prevarication 
seldom avails. Tristram quickly decided for absolute 
candour. 

You shall have the whole truth. Jack,” said he, 
'' disagreeable as it is to me to make what you will 
think a silly sort of confession. Long ago, when I 
was a boy, I fell in love with Blanche Stanfield, and 
I won’t pretend that my feelings have changed from 
that day to this. They haven’t. But it is a very old 
story. She knew nothing about it at the time, and, 
as you yourself seem to have guessed, she knows 
nothing about it today. Never through all the long 
years of our friendship has a word been spoken by 
me which could have enlightened her — if I had wished 
to enlighten her, as I need scarcely say that I haven’t. 
For you are to understand that from first to last she 
has looked upon me as a species of elder brother. 
Now you can forbid me your house if, after what you 
have heard, you think that there is any reason why 
you should. I ask no favour ; I haven’t disguised 
my opinion of you and I will say plainly that I don’t 
place much faith in your professions of amendment. 
But whatever your opinion of me may be, you must 
at least be aware that I don’t tell lies.” 

It was bold language to use ; still Tristram may 
have accurately gauged the man with whom he had 
to deal. Jack laughed awkwardly, rubbed the back 
of his head, made one or two unsuccessful attempts to 
speak and finally held out his big, red hand. 


ii6 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

I believe you, old man,” he declared, ” I believe 
you. Thanks for being straight with me. You’re 
rather an ass, you know, but you’re no liar. Though 
I must say that you’re no flatterer either — and be 
damned to you ! ” 


CHAPTER X 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 

Jack’s dominant feeling, after he had turned his back 
upon Chelsea, was that he was jolly glad there had 
been no need for a row. Tristram, to be sure, had 
been none too civil ; still he had spoken out like a 
man, if he hadn’t spoken much like a friend, and of 
course it was unnecessary to put a stop to the Platonic 
friendship by which poor Blanche and he seemed to 
set such store. That was all right, so far as it went ; 
only it did not, upon more mature rumination, go 
quite the length of restoring things to their former 
footing. Jack had a sensation, impossible of analysis 
by him, which assuredly could not be called jealousy 
— he laughed alOud when the word rose to his tongue 
— yet which was in some sort akin to jealousy and 
which gave him a certain longing to get even ” with 
his old pal. His old pal had become, at any rate, his 
avowed antagonist and had, moreover, finished dis- 
tinctly top dog in their late encounter. But with 
Blanche, thank goodness, there was no account to 
settle. Blanche might set her mind at ease, and 
naturally he breathed no word to her respecting the 
confession which had been wrung from her friend. 

Blanche’s mind was in truth very far from being 


ii8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


eased by her husband’s changed bearing towards her. 
She had to advance a step in the direction of meeting 
him ; she had to treat their reconciliation as estab- 
lished ; she could not let him see that his boisterous 
blandishments were almost more than she could bear 
or that the mere touch of his hand caused her physical 
nausea. She was his wife, and she realised that it 
devolved upon her to restrain him from backslidings 
which might prove fatal ; but her burden was sensibly 
heavier during this phase than it had been at the time 
of their undisguised estrangement. Tristram, excusing 
himself on the ground of theatrical preoccupations, 
looked in upon her with less regularity than had been 
his wont and was perceptibly less serene than of yore 
when he did so. He perfectly understood that she 
was suffering a martyrdom, but he could not refer to 
that subject without a lead from her, while she shrank 
from introducing it even to the most discerning of 
sympathisers. Both of them were to some extent 
embarrassed by the memory of Jack’s charges, neither 
knowing whether the other had been subjected to these 
or not ; so that a rather wide field of habitual con- 
fabulation was closed to them. Thus restricted, they 
talked all but exclusively of Tristram’s play, which 
Blanche had read and as to the reception of which she 
was more nervous and anxious than its author ; for 
she was well aware that a triumph in this instance 
would represent to him a species of compensation for 
previous distasteful victories. 

‘‘ How did it go this time ? ” she asked, one after- 
noon, when he came to her, fresh from attending a 
rehearsal. 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 119 

'Tf possible, worse than ever,’' he answered, laughing. 
** When I tell you that Allingham was at last self- 
complacent, you may guess what a preposterous 
mountebank he made of my unhappy hero.” 

But can’t you make him see how the character 
ought to be played ? ” 

'‘Oh, dear, no 1 I don’t even try any more. I just 
sit watching their antics and when they have finished, 
I thank them all, with tears in my eyes. Not one 
of them — Allingham least of any — has a notion of 
what I am after. Yet the thing is crystal-clear.” 

It was scarcely that, and Tristram’s methods, (save 
when he deliberately employed methods which he 
considered inartistic and detestable), were not of a 
kind to assist either actors or audience. Nevertheless 
The Traitor was a conscientiously studied and in parts 
brilliant piece of work. The subject, suggested to him 
by an episode in the unofficial diplomatic records of 
the First French Empire, had struck him as apt for 
dramatic exploitation. Given a shrewd, calculating 
Minister who has secured, but has not yet deemed it 
expedient to use, certain compromising letters which 
the writer, a foreign potentate, would pay any price 
to recover ; given a fair and fascinating lady, secretly 
in the employ of the said potentate, who is confident 
in the power of her charms to subjugate the Minister ; 
given, further, that the Minister knows very well what 
she would be at and is resolved to utilise her for his own 
purposes, and you have the nucleus of a not unpromis- 
ing plot. Tristram, in developing it, had taken a few 
liberties with the alleged historical episode. The 
two rival conspirators — so the story went — ^beginning 


120 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


with mutual deception, ended by falling victims to 
the flame that they had feigned, and were thus driven 
hither and thither throughout their intercoiurse by 
emotional cross-currents. The lady finally triumphed, 
inasmuch as she obtained surrender of the documents 
from her infatuated lover ; but soon after his flight 
with her across the frontier, which entailed his political 
ruin and social disgrace, he committed suicide, over- 
whelmed, it was said, by tardy remorse. 

Out of these materials Tristram constructed a 
drama and a denouement of somewhat greater psycho- 
logical interest. He introduced the complication of 
making the Minister a married man with a suspicious 
wife ; he pictured him as succumbing unwillingly 
and by slow degrees to a passion which he does not 
believe to be returned, yet which up to the last he 
hopes to gratify at some price short of the one de- 
manded ; he made him reveal himself little by little 
to the woman whose heart he has won and who, when 
at length she has received the coveted papers from his 
hands, tosses them into the fire. I have kept my 
word and saved my King,” says she, “ though I shall 
get no credit, as I shall have nothing to show. As for 
you, you are free to return to your wife and your 
ambitions. I shall not stand in your way, because I 
love you, and for the same reason we shall not meet 
again.” To all his entreaties and adjurations she 
remains obdurate, even when he urges that he has 
already taken the fatal plunge by placing his honour 
and his future at her mercy. ‘ ‘ What will that matter, ' ' 
she asks, '' since my lips are sealed and since no one but 
myself will ever know you for a traitor ? ” 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 121 

Upon this scornful query the curtain drops, and with 
the divers incidents preceding the climax — ^the jealousy 
of the Minister’s wife, the hitches arising out of a 
flirtation which could not be kept unobserved, and so 
forth — ^Tristram could easily have put together a 
stirring tragi-comedy ; but he had preferred, for once, 
to rely solely upon dialogue, and, clever though the 
dialogue unquestionably was, it risked being a trifle 
too subtle for the average play-goer. Sidney knew 
that ; Blanche was afraid of it ; Tristram himself 
anticipated a flat failure, not on the above account, 
but because he despaired of anything like adequate 
interpretation. 

Allingham,” he predicted, is so adroit that he 
may get the gallery to applaud him ; but the appla.use, 
if it comes at all, is sure to come at the excruciatingly 
wrong moment.” 

It was therefore with a mind steeled against adversity 
that on the night of the first representation of The 
Traitor Tristram joined a little bevy of his friends in 
the box which he had placed at their disposal. Mrs. 
Stanfield and Blanche occupied the two front chairs ; 
behind them were Kitty and the General and Claude 
Hadow ; so that there was not much space left for a 
new-comer who was very well contented with a back 
seat. 

” Don’t give me away,” he begged, while acknow- 
ledging Mrs. Stanfield’s waved demonstrations. ” You’ll 
be having nuts and orange-peel thrown at you before 
the evening is over if you are suspected of sheltering 
the hapless author of a fiasco.” 

” My dear man,” she returned, '' you’ll be sitting 


122 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


on my knee to shield me from a bombardment of 
flowers and laurels. You and a fiasco indeed ! Why, 
you couldn’t perpetrate such a thing if you tried.” 

” Oh, I’ve tried,” he murmured under his breath, 
and Claude Hadow, who heard him, retorted con- 
fidently : 

Then I’ll lay a hundred to one that you’ve tried 
in vain.” 

Claude longed as much as Blanche did to see a 
writer to whose gifts he was peculiarly sensible ” come 
into his own ” in what was to all intents and purposes 
a new field ; but he was more sanguine than she, being 
persuaded that work which he knew to be excellent 
must approve itself as such to everybody who had 
ears to hear. Tristram’s ears and eyes, during the first 
act, were more engaged upon Claude and Kitty and 
observing that they had neither words nor looks for 
one another than upon following the proceedings on 
the stage. 

The first act, for the rest, went well enough : first 
acts generally do. Moreover, this one, which had 
movement and stimulating promise, did not inflict 
too severe a strain upon an audience predisposed to 
be sympathetic. The pit and gallery were ready to 
acclaim an old favourite, while the stalls were largely 
tenanted by Tristram’s literary admirers, whose 
approval of any fare that he might set before them was 
a foregone conclusion. Into one stall, to be sure, there 
plunged, shortly after the rising of the curtain, an 
auditor who could not be classed under that heading. 
Blanche recognised her husband with surprise and a 
shiver of vexed apprehension. It had never been 


123 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 

suggested or thought of that Jack, who was scarcely 
upon speaking terms with her people, should form one 
of the family party, nor were any theatrical perform- 
ances, except revues and musical comedies, usually 
honoured by his patronage. There, however, he was, 
and she had a sinking dread lest, in his transformed 
character, he might judge the occasion appropriate for 
invading the box and shaking hands all round. Merci- 
fully, he abstained from thus putting her to confusion. 
During the entr’acte he looked up at her and gave her 
an amicable nod ; but he did not leave his place, and 
Sidney was their only visitor. 

** So far so good,” Sidney remarked, as he dropped 
into the chair beside Kitty which the General had 
vacated. Admirably staged — trust Allingham for 
that ! — and not too badly played. All the big fences 
are in front of us, though, and there may be empty 
saddles before long. Not yours, my dear Rolfe ; 
you’ll be first past the post, happen what may. But 
I shall be curious to see how and where Allingham will 
finish.” 

He himself was riding a race in which he seemed to 
have nothing to fear from his sole competitor. After 
that preliminary speech he devoted himself entirely to 
Kitty, who lent him a willing ear, and he maintained 
his position at her elbow all through the second act. 
It was odd, Tristram thought, that nobody but he 
appeared to notice this advertised assiduity, especially 
odd that it drew no token of displeasure or uneasiness 
from Claude Hadow. He did not make quite sufficient 
allowance for the pride of youth, which caused Claude 
to regard Sidney as a middle-aged man, or for the 


124 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


humility of a lover who believed himself to be hope- 
lessly out of the running. As for the others, they 
either took Sidney for the unimportant intimate in 
their circle that he had long been or were too engrossed 
in the play to pay attention to him. One of them 
ceased to find engrossing interest in the play before the 
second act, which was a long one, ended. 

Very clever. I’ve no doubt,” Mrs. Stanfield con- 
fided to her elder daughter, but it drags — it drags ! 
These people talk everlastingly, instead of coming to 
close quarters and giving us thrills. Let’s hope that 
there’s a rumpus of some sort in store.” 

The requirements of Mrs. Stanfield and others were 
in no wise met by the third act, at once the skilfuUest 
and the most dangerous of the piece. It was dangerous 
because, although a finished artist in close concert with 
the author might have rendered it both convincing and 
exciting, a histrion of AUingham’s calibre could only 
arrive at imparting a share of his personal bewilder- 
ment to the audience. He missed every point which 
he had been intended to indicate, he emphasised others 
which were out of keeping with his role and virtually 
disclosed what should have been left in doubt. Tristram 
looked on resignedly at the massacre of his handiwork, 
Mrs. Stanfield yawned behind her fan, Claude Hadow 
cursed AUingham under his breath, while Blanche, not 
daring to look over her shoulder, suffered anguish on 
her friend’s behalf. She knew that the play could not 
now prove a success ; yet sustained applause from 
certain quarters of the house gave her hope that, since 
the moment of greatest peril had been tided over, it 
would at least escape definite failure. That it did. 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 125 

alas ! definitely fail she ever afterwards imputed — 
whether with justice or not — to the action of a single 
individual who was stationed directly beneath her 
It was just as a momentary cessation of the voices on 
the stage lent additional range to the carrying power 
of his loud one that Jack jumped up, struggled into his 
overcoat and announced to his neighbour that he 
was off. 

Can’t stick any more of this. Bally piffle 1 call 
it ! ” he roared. 

Somebody who would have done better to hold his 
tongue called out, “ Hush 1” A little titter in Jack’s 
vicinity swelled into unrestrained laughter, spread 
itself somehow over the whole house and gained the 
gallery, whence arose shouts of “ Bally piffle I ” in 
token of agreement with a general sentiment thus 
tersely put into two words. Blanche was furious. She 
had not a doubt but that Jack had done this base thing 
of malice prepense and, despite the rule which she had 
laid down for herself to say nothing, good or bad, 
about her husband to her family, she was unable to 
resist whispering to her mother : 

“ I could not conceive what had brought him here. 
Now I understand well enough ! ” 

Oh, do you think he really did it on purpose ? 
Mrs. Stanfield demurred. “ I don’t see why he should. 
After all, if he has a friend, I suppose it is Tristram 
Rolfe.” 

He knows,” returned Blanche bitterly, “ that if I 
have one, it is Tristram and that the surest way of 
hurting me is to hurt him.” 

Pig I ” murmured Mrs. Stanfield sympathisingly, 


126 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


but was constrained to add : ''All the same, if I 
weren’t humbly conscious of my own stupidity, I’m 
not sure that I shouldn’t be tempted to think as he 
does, for once.” 

Blanche sighed and said no more, already repenting 
of having said so much. Her mother evidently did 
not partake in her indignation or see that Jack had 
conducted himself any worse than was to be expected. 
Her mother’s view had been stated often enough — 
" My poor child, you have an impossible husband of 
whom you could rid yourself if you chose. As you 
don’t choose, what can one do for you ? ” 

The concluding act was brief and might, under 
happier auspices, have been effective ; but it was 
addressed to an assemblage partly bored, partly 
derisive ; so that the plaudits of a select few only 
served to provoke increased booing and hissing from 
the majority. Allingham, called before the curtain, 
met with a mixed reception and, in response to demands 
for a speech, delivered himself of something which was 
not quite an apology for the author, but which con- 
veyed the impression that he was not personally re- 
sponsible for the author’s vagaries. He said this was 
the first time in his managerial experience that he had 
had to encounter what he was afraid he must take as 
an adverse verdict, and he might add that Mr. Rolfe, 
whose previous productions had commanded universal 
acceptance, was in a similar situation. On the present 
occasion an attempt more novel, more ambitious — 
possibly too ambitious — ^had been made, and no doubt 
some degree of risk always attached to the production 
of novelties. He and his fellow actors and actresses 


THE TRAITOR JUDGED 127 

had done their utmost ; he did not think that they 
could accuse themselves or be accused of any remiss- 
ness in their interpretation of their several parts. As 
for the piece, notwithstanding its somewhat discour- 
aging start, he had no intention of withdrawing it. He 
maintained his opinion that it was a work of high 
merit, and his belief was that it would ere long be re- 
warded by a more generous, as well as a more just, 
recognition of its worth. 

He believed nothing of the sort ; but he withdrew 
amidst cheers which were obviously intended as a 
tribute to his individual exertions and which may have 
gone some way towards consoling him for a defeat 
that did not take him by surprise. 

Tristram, to all outward seeming, stood in no need 
of consolation. He was by far the least crestfallen of 
the little group in the box and took his rebuff with 
complete good humour. 

Teach me to clip my wings for the future,'’ he re- 
marked, smiling. “ The thing wasn't liked, and I 
ought to have known that it wouldn't be liked." 

Oh, one ought always to know what comes of 
casting pearls before swine," murmured the discom- 
fited Claude. 

" It was all Mr. Allingham's fault," Kitty declared. 
'' I never saw him act worse, and I've seen him act 
pretty badly more than once." 

But Tristram declined to be exculpated at the ex- 
pense of AUingham or anybody else. He said he had 
had his fling and had been taught his lesson. For the 
matter of that, he had learnt it long ago ; only he 
had thought that it might be amusing to try how 


128 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


far undeserved popularity would go towards helping 
a lame dog over a stile. Sidney observed that it had 
been rather a question of how far style could go to- 
wards helping dull dogs out of mental difficulties. 
Tristram's other comforters, seeing him so unconcerned, 
were themselves comforted ; but that was because 
only one of them realised that he had in truth been 
hard hit. Before they parted she had a word or two 
with him in which she did not attempt to blink the fact 
that The Traitor hdid failed, though she threw the whole 
blame for its failure upon another traitor, whom she 
named. 

That infamous ejaculation of his was well timed," 
she said. " It came just at the moment when every- 
thing was still in the balance, and that was what it 
was designed to do. You heard him ? " 

" Oh, yes, I heard him," Tristram answered. " Poor 
Jack 1 I bear him no grudge. It was a veritable cri 
du cceur/* 

Did he think so ? She, at all events, did not, and, 
although she refrained from pursuing the subject, she 
bore a grudge against her husband which somehow 
eclipsed the memory of all his bygone iniquities. He 
had struck her an assassin's blow, and she knew now, 
if she had not known before, what to think of his simu- 
lated affection. There pierced through her anger and 
disgust a ray of solace in the reflection that she, on her 
side, would have to pretend no longer and that thence- 
forth she would be amply justified in warning Jack 
to stand clear of her*^ 


CHAPTER XI 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 

The reason why at a given moment we so often go 
wrong in our estimate of our neighbours’ actions and 
motives is that we necessarily judge them by the test 
of experience, having indeed no other available test 
to judge them by, and forget that inconsistency is a 
privilege common to us all. Jack Maddison, who had 
again and again exhibited a malicious ingenuity in 
wounding his wife at vulnerable points, was not at all 
unlikely, upon the face of the thing, to have devised 
an expedient which had so amply achieved that result, 
although he was in reality guiltless of any such inten- 
tion. In reality his attitude towards Blanche remained 
one of repentant gratitude, and, had it been otherwise, 
he would hardly have hit upon such a roundabout mode 
of attack as she assigned to him. With Tristram, on 
the other hand, he had still a crow to pluck ; so that 
he might not have been averse to wrecking The Traitor, 
had he imagined it to be in his power to do so. As a 
matter of fact, he had been drawn to the theatre merely 
by the chance of his having nothing particular to do 
with his evening. Old Tristie’s plays had sometimes 
amused him ; but this time he had not been amused. 
He had called the piece piffle because in his opinion it 

Q 129 


130 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


was piffle, and that was all about it. Nevertheless, he 
grinned over sundry newspaper critiques at breakfast 
the next morning, and one paragraph in particular 
caused his grin to expand into a gleeful laugh. 

The gentleman in the stalls who audibly pro- 
nounced the play * piffle,’ prefacing his pronouncement 
with an emphatic adjective, was of course wide of 
the mark ; for, whatever The Traitor may be, it is 
not that. Yet Mr. Rolfe would do well to take 
warning by a verdict which many impatient voices 
ratified.” 

Wide of the mark, eh ? Not so very, by all accounts. 
Tristie, anyhow, had come a cropper this journey, 
and if he knew or guessed who the gentleman in 
the stalls was — ^well, he was welcome to the informa- 
tion. Tristie had seen fit to ride the high horse with 
him, and he wasn’t sorry to have got a bit of his 
own back. 

The above not over-malevolent reflections summed 
up Jack’s share of conscious responsibility for what 
had taken place ; but Blanche, who at the same time 
was perusing the same journal upstairs, saw in it the 
confirmation of her own fixed idea. Many a time had 
her husband sickened and disgusted her, but never 
before had she been moved to such invincible repug- 
nance as he had now unwittingly stirred up. There 
was to her a depth of meanness in this attack, launched 
simultaneously with vows of contrition, which placed 
Jack outside toleration’s bounds. For the first time 
her determination not to seek a divorce from him was 
shaken. She had performed her duty and more than 
her duty ; she had borne infidelity, cruelty, insult ; 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 131 

she had tended her husband in his sickness and had 
put up as well as she had been able with the caresses 
which had so unpleasantly attended his restoration to 
health. Now she had done with him. Not if he were 
on his death-bed could he claim further indulgence 
from her. Her parents were right ; so was Tristram 
Rolfe, and so were all her friends. Why should she 
continue to suffer tortures when release lay ready to 
her hand ? This last offence of his was final, not 
because of its being in itself more heinous than former 
ones, but because it was the crown and culmination of 
them, showing him as false as he was spiteful. In it- 
self, however, it would almost have sufficed, and no- 
body would have been more astonished than the culprit 
if he could have been made to understand how bitterly 
it had galled her. She, for her part, thought she 
understood very well how galling it must have been to 
the outwardly stoical Tristram. She, and she alone, 
was in Tristram’s full confidence ; she was aware that 
he reproached himself for having sinned against the 
canons of an art which was to him a sort of religion 
and that this play had been not so much a bid for 
public favour as for the recovery of self-esteem. Her 
heart ached for him while she read one criticism 
after another which formulated condemnation in 
terms all the more incisive for being after a manner 
laudatory. 

It is well known that Mr. Rolfe is the possessor of 
a dual personality. As a novelist of high and undis- 
puted rank he enjoys the admiration of a circle which, 
if numerically small, is rightly enthusiastic; as a 
writer of plays he has known how to captivate the 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


vast, practically illiterate mass of persons who come 
under the designation of the general public, and in so 
doing he would doubtless be the first to admit that he 
has had to work upon a lower plane. The combina- 
tion of such capacities in one and the same individual 
is a rare and curious phenomenon, their combination 
in one and the same composition is a self-evident im- 
possibility. Unfortunately, Mr. Rolfe does not seem 
to have thought so, and the consequence is that he 
gives us The Traitor. He gives us, that is to say, 
something which his genius would have framed into an 
admirable novel, but which not even his genius could 
save from being an ineffective and, we fear we must 
add, a wearisome drama.” 

That sample was the index of the rest. Only one 
newspaper made allusion to Jack’s interpellation, but 
that one, by Blanche’s way of thinking, hit the nail on 
the head. Even though the play might possibly have 
fallen flat in any event, it was Jack who had given it 
the coup de grace. One comfort was that she was in 
little danger of being brought face to face with Jack 
that day. Of late, to be sure, he had contracted the 
unwelcome habit of lunching at home ; but she herself 
was engaged to lunch with her family at the Jermyn 
Street hotel where they had established themselves 
for the night of the play and at which it had been agreed 
that the victorious or defeated playwright was to be 
entertained. For the sake of the playwright’s sensi- 
bilities and her own, Blanche might have been 
tempted to make default ; only she wished to talk 
to Tristram, whose few words of the night before 
had seemed to her to make far too light of an in- 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 133 

cident whereby her whole standpoint had been vitally 
affected. 

Tristram’s sensibilities, as it turned out, were spared 
by entertainers who had no wish to expatiate upon a 
depressing topic. What little was said about The 
T raitor was said by Sidney, who was tactful enough. 

** Taken as a whole,” he told Tristram, ” one may 
say that you have a good Press. You don’t get full 
justice, of course, but you get more than a succes d'estime, 
I shouldn’t even wonder if the public were yet to dis- 
cover that you have paid an unmerited compliment 
to its intelligence.” 

As one of the unintelligent public,” said Mrs. Stan- 
field cheerfully, ” I’m content to leave it at that. 
While we’re busy cultivating ourselves, let us have 
another Penitent Criminal and we’ll snap our finger^ 
and thumbs at Mr. Sidney Maddison and the rest of 
the superior beings.” 

Would she have had a similar gesture for Mr. Sidney 
Maddison, Tristram wondered, if she had taken note 
of the manifest court that he was paying to her younger 
daughter ? It was manifest to Tristram, but appar- 
ently to no one else. Claude Hadow was absent, being 
once more under medical examination ; Blanche had 
a preoccupied air ; the old people perhaps saw nothing 
more than they had grown accustomed to seeing. 
Kitty, it could be taken for granted, was not in the 
dark, and it might be surmised that she was not 
immune from the traditional weaknesses of her sex. 
She was perhaps a little in love with Claude Hadow 
assuredly she was not in love with her assiduous 
neighbour. Yet there is risk in playing with fire when 


134 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


you have an artful Sidney Maddison for playfellow. 
Tristram, ceding to his inveterate habit, studied the 
girl, seeking elucidation of what had begun to assume 
for him the enticement of a problem. Thus he had 
less than his wonted attention to spare for Blanche 
until, when the party broke up, she asked him to walk 
home with her. That was a request which needed 
no pressing, and he had not escorted her far down 
St. James’s Street before she let him know, without 
prelude, why it had been made. 

“ I want to tell you that I have almost made up my 
mind to do as you advise. You know how hateful the 
idea of divorce has always been to me ; but I see now 
that the alternative may be even more hateful.” 

” Has anything happened ? ” he asked apprehen- 
sively. 

She caught him up with unusual impatience. Has 
anything happened ! You saw and heard what hap- 
pened last night. You affected not to think much of 
it ; I daresay you didn’t think much of it, because you 
didn’t understand, as I did, that it was intentional, 
premeditated, that it was the last and worst of a long 
succession of despicable cruelties. I can’t go on living 
with him after that — I can’t ! ” 

She spoke with a vehemence and acrimony which 
puzzled him. Supposing even that Jack had designedly 
served him an ill turn — ^which he himself did not 
believe — so petty an act of spite was hardly important 
enough to provoke extreme measures of retaliation. 
He knew, however, that an idea which had once taken 
root in Blanche’s brain was not easily dislodged ; so 
he did not argue the point, 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 135 

My advice/^ he answered, '' had to be what it was. 
For a long time Jack’s conduct had been such that I 
didn’t see how you could go on living with him. Still, 
as you say, divorce has always been a hateful 
remedy to you, and surely since his last bout of 
illness there has been a marked change for the better 
in him.” 

That is just it,” she returned. What you call a 
change for the better is that, for some reason — ^perhaps 
because he found me efficient as a nurse — he has’ pro- 
fessed to be repentant and grateful and has made 
demonstrations — oh, the most noisome demonstra- 
tions ! — of affection. Yet all the time he was planning 
this stab in the back 1 I preferred him as he was, 
brutish and unashamed.” 

Such a preference was not incomprehensible. With 
regard to the special misdemeanour, however, Tristram 
ventured to observe that if anybody had been stabbed 
in the back, he, not she, was the victim. 

” No,” she declared, “he meant to strike us both. 
It is not only because he knows, as everybody does, 
that you are my most intimate friend, but because — 
I don’t like saying it, though I think I must, and, 
after all, what does it matter ? — he has been led to 
believe that there is more than friendship between 
us.” 

Tristram’s heart stood still. What had possessed 
him to make a confidence which he might have fore- 
seen that Jack could not be trusted to respect ! If 
his secret, kept inviolate for so many years, had been 
divulged, he was undone. 

“ Yes/’ he said, deeming it, upon the whole, best to 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


136 

say so, I know that Jack had that absurd notion. 
He came to see me about it/' 

Her rejoinder was blessedly reassuring. '' Oh, did 
he ? How atrocious of him !— yet how like him ! 
What did you say ? " 

The truth,” answered Tristram, breathing more 
freely. I told him what I should imagine that the 
evidence of his own senses must have confirmed. Any- 
how, he believed me and shook hands with me.” 

Blanche did not look quite satisfied. “ How can 
one tell from one moment to another what he will 
believe or fancy ? ” she asked. I doubt whether he 
is in his right mind ; but I don't and can't doubt that 
his one wish is to give me pain. He may not be as 
anxious to hurt you ; very likely he isn't. But that 
will never prevent him from hurting me through you, 
if he can see his way to do it.” 

They had reached the partial privacy of St. James’s 
Park, and by mutual unspoken consent they seated 
themselves upon two vacant chairs. Tristram, desirous 
of setting aside a subject which was still open to pain- 
ful developments in his case, harked back to his com- 
panion's first unexpected announcement. 

'' If you feel that your present life is insupportable,” 
he suggested, “ could you not get release without hav- 
ing to face an ordeal which has always seemed terrible 
to you ? A separation by consent ” . . . . 

There would be no consent on his side,” she inter- 
rupted ; I have made him too comfortable. Be- 
sides, he has it at the back of his mind that he may 
want me to nurse him again.” 

“ Well, his consent isn’t indispensable,” 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 137 

She shook her head. He could easily make it so. 
Isn’t there such a thing as suing for restitution of 
conjugal rights ? He has only to threaten that, 
and I should have no answer except to sue for a 
divorce.” 

Tristram held his peace for a minute. He was in 
the position of having to oppose what he had hitherto 
advocated ; for he could not think that Blanche had 
adduced any valid reason for so suddenly turning her 
back upon herself. 

” Don’t act in a hurry,” seemed to be the wisest 
counsel that he could give her. ” If you do, you may 
repent at a later stage. I have a foreboding that you 
would.” 

” I never act in a hurry,” she returned. ” I haven’t 
made up my mind without having convinced myself 
that I am choosing the lesser of two evils.” 

” I should agree if you hadn’t until now been so con- 
vinced that it would be the greater.” 

” I haven’t until now seen ihyself deprived of your 
companionship and help,” she answered, with a rather 
tremulous laugh. ” Perhaps you don’t realise what a 
loss that would be to me ; I don’t think you have ever 
quite realised how alone I am. And it would certainly 
come to pass. You and I know the absurdity of Jack’s 
delusion ; but he doesn’t, and if he did, he would still 
use it as a pretext. His having shaken hands with 
you goes for nothing. He may turn round tomorrow 
and forbid me to receive you any more.” 

In view of Jack’s capriciousness, such a contingency 
could not be ruled out of account ; yet it was surely 
better to wait until it should arise. That was the course 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


138 

which Tristram felt bound to urge ; but his represen- 
tations were not very well received. 

It is odd of you,” said Blanche, getting up, to 
draw back just when I have at last screwed myself up 
to being brave ; still I know, of course, that what you 
say is sensible. There are things that you don’t 
imderstand. Perhaps you can’t.” 

He understood well enough that a reformed and 
affectionate husband might be harder to put up with 
than an alienated one. Personally, he could but wish 
to see the divorce an accomplished fact ; only Blanche’s 
deep-rooted prejudices, which would be so liable to 
reassert themselves after the -event, had to be borne 
in mind. There was, moreover, the danger — the high 
probability — of her learning in the course of the fray 
what was thus far obviously unsuspected by her. 
Charged, as he doubtless would be, with the admission 
that he had made to Jack, he would be unable to re- 
cant it, and then there would perforce be an end of 
the pleasant intimacy — ^as pleasant and consoling to 
him as it had been to her — ^which it would have given 
him the sharpest of pangs to surrender. He was there- 
fore at a loss to express himself acceptably, and indeed 
Blanche did not appear anxious to prolong their parley. 
As soon as they emerged from the park she signalled 
to a taxi and did not ask him to accompany her home. 

” You’ll think it over carefully, won’t you ? ” he 
pleaded, with his hand on the door, after she had 
seated herself. 

I have done that already,” she replied. I am 
sorry you don’t see things as I do ; but that can’t be 
helped. I am not likely to change my mind now/’ 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 139 

There was certainly no likelihood of such a change 
being brought about by anything that he had said. 
She was, naturally, a little disappointed in him and 
perhaps also a little sorry that she had assigned the 
menace to their friendship as being the deciding factor 
in her resolution. His response, or omission to re- 
spond, had been rather chilling. But whether her 
friend approved or disapproved, she was going to 
divorce her husband. How often had her right to 
take that step been impressed upon her ! She had 
never felt quite sure about the right ; but now, while 
she was being rattled through the streets, she said to 
herself that she was quite sure of the necessity. 

Anne Pritchard met her at the foot of the staircase 
in Eaton Square, and Anne had disagreeable tidings 
for her. 

“ He's bad again," the old woman announced. 
(Anne always spoke of the master of the house as 
"he.") " Mortal bad, he says, and been shouting for 

you this last hour or more. I telephoned to Jermyn 
Street, but they said you was gone. I expect you’d 
best try to quiet him till the doctor comes. Jarvis 
can't do nothing with him." 

Blanche felt herself thrown back, if not defeated. 
After a long fight with obstinate conscience, she had 
all but conquered, only to find the inward tyrant as 
powerful and vocal as ever. She did not in the least 
forgive Jack because he was ill ; yet, since ill he was, 
a rupture must, for the time being, be held in abeyance. 
Tossing, writhing and groaning — ^with " a new kind of 
pain," he said — ^he was indeed, to all appearance, very 
ill, and although she could do little pending the dpctor’s 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


140 

arrival, she did contrive to soothe him by gentle 
words, gentle touches which were the symbol of real 
pity for suffering, be the sufferer who he might. One 
may loathe a noxious reptile without wishing to see 
it in agony. 

Jack’s agony ceased soon after the hypodermic in- 
jection of morphia which Dr. Mackwood did not hesi- 
tate to employ. Dr. Mackwood, when the patient had 
dropped off to sleep, shrugged his shoulders and re- 
marked : 

No remedy, Mrs. Maddison ; only a palliative 
which has its cogent drawbacks. I shall not do this 
again, mind, unless I am obliged ; but with a man as 
intolerant of pain as your husband we must be pre- 
pared to resist entreaties.” 

” Do you think worse of him than you did ? ” 
Blanche asked. 

'' I won't say that yet. At the same time, it might 
be well to have a second opinion. With your approval, 
I will bring Sir James Fulton here tomorrow.” 

Blanche was left to ponder the significance of a 
proposal which made it plain that Dr. Mackwood 
did think worse of the case. A consultation could 
only mean that it was grave, and if it was grave — ^was 
there not on the horizon a dawning solution of all 
her perplexities and miseries ? Her heart gave an 
irrepressible leap and then sank as she found herself 
face to face with the fact that she wished her husband 
to die. That was wicked ; it is wicked to wish for 
anybody’s death. She was by nature a straightforward 
woman ; it had never been her way to turn aside from 
ugly thoughts or close her eyes to the truth, She did 


BLANCHE MAKES UP HER MIND 141 

wish Jack to die. It was so, and she could not help 
it. But at the moment that she made that admission 
she was conscious of parting with something undefin- 
able — ^religious fealty, self-respect ? . . . she was un- 
able to put an exact name to it — ^which had hitherto 
been her safeguard in many a storm. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 

Sir James Fulton had the name, always valuable to 
a consulting surgeon, of being an optimist. No doubt 
experience had taught him that while it is just as 
easy to look upon the bright as upon the dark side of 
things, the former attitude is the more popular and 
by consequence the wiser ; but indeed he had all the 
reasons that a man who has climbed to the top of the 
tree, has successfully treated Royal personages and 
enjoys an abundant income can have for showing a 
smiling countenance to the world. 

This dapper gentleman, standing with Dr. Mack- 
wood by Jack Maddison’s bedside, saw at once that 
he had to deal with a customer both sullen and scared ; 
so his exordium was proportionately cheerful. 

“ Sciatica ? — ^ah, yes, a horrid pain, isn’t it ? But 
we must see what we can do to keep that under. Never 
mind the other symptoms ; I've been hearing all 
about them. You have a magnificent physique, Mr. 
Maddison, which is so much to the good. You must 
beware of taking liberties with it, though, if you want 
to get well and strong again.” 

” What I want,” growled Jack, “ is a good stiff 
whisky-and-soda. ’ ’ 


142 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 


143 

Very well ; you shall have one with your luncheon, 
not before. Now let's have a look at you." 

The rather prolonged examination which ensued 
appeared to satisfy Sir James, who continued to smile 
throughout it, nodded every now and then and summed 
up with : 

" There ! — I needn’t bother you any more. Dr. 
Mackwood understands what’s the matter as well as I 
do. Your part is to help him to help you, and I’m sure 
you’ll be reasonable enough to play your part.’’ 

Only a confirmed optimist could have expected 
reasonableness of Jack Maddison and, as a matter of 
fact. Dr. Mackwood had but partially and tardily 
understood the case ; but what is the use of saying un- 
pleasant things ? Sir James had nothing unpleasant 
to say to his colleague in the adjoining room ; he 
only remarked, with a slight grimace : 

" Yes, you were quite right ; there’s no doubt about 
it. The trouble, unfortunately, has made rather more 
progress than I gathered from you that it had ; still 
there the thing is and there could have been no getting 
rid of it. Operating is out of the question.’’ 

If Dr. Mackwood experienced anything in the 
nature of a shock, he was careful not to give himself 
away. He said he was sorry, though not surprised, 
to hear his diagnosis confirmed ; after which he made 
some observations respecting treatment in which Sir 
James acquiesced. 

" Oh, don’t scruple to use morphia,’’ the latter said. 

Of course you will take care that he gets no chance 
of dosing himself. Man must have been drinking 
heavily for years. I should allow a fair amount of 


144 the obstinate LADY 

stimulant if I were you. Nothing can do him serious 
harm now.'’ 

Nor, it seemed, did his medical attendants opine that 
anything could do him serious good. They agreed, 
however, that neither he nor Mrs. Maddison should 
be told more than it was expedient for them to hear. 
No doctor — certainly not Sir James Fulton — ^would 
wish to discourage his patients or those about them. 
Sir James, therefore had a report to make to Mrs. 
Maddison which might have passed for reassuring with 
anyone anxious to be reassured. 

“ Well, my dear lady, I won’t disguise from you 
that we have a troublesome malady to combat, and we 
must not look for immediate amelioration. Neverthe- 
less, I can say that there is no cause for immediate 
alarm. Your husband, I am afraid, will have to sub- 
mit to restrictions which I can well believe will be 
irksome to him ; but never mind ! Do your best to 
reconcile him to them and to keep his spirits up. 
Keeping the patient’s spirits up is half the battle, you 
know.” 

It occurred to Blanche that she would have a whole 
battle and a hard one to keep her own up. His ill- 
ness will be long, then ? ” she asked. 

Impossible to tell. I have known some such cases 
last for years and others which — er — have not shown 
the same persistence. Dr. Mackwood, who thoroughly 
understands Mr. Maddison ’s constitution and — ^and 
idiosyncrasies, will be able to give you more informa- 
tion and instruction as to details than I can. Your 
husband, believe me, could not be in more competent 
hands.” 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 


145 


With bows and smiles the specialist backed himself 
out, and as soon as the door had closed behind him 
Blanche repeated her unanswered, probably unanswer- 
able question. 

Will it be a long illness ? ” 

“ Humanly speaking,” was Dr. Mackwood’s reply, 
“ it cannot be short. So much depends upon himself 
and, if I may say so, upon you. I think you have 
greater influence over him than anybody, and I think 
you may have to exert it.” 

Blanche sighed, while the friendly little doctor, who 
naturally knew what all the world knew, surveyed 
her with inward compassion. Jack Maddison was a 
brute, and he was sorry for this poor, longsuffering 
woman, whose tired, drawn features set forth very 
legibly the dismay with which she confronted an un- 
grateful mission. Not quite so sorry, though, as he 
would have been had he not been aware that Jack 
Maddison 's days were numbered. By way of impart- 
ing a crumb of comfort, he said : 

Much as I rely upon you, Mrs. Maddison, you 
must not be allowed to overtax your strength. Would 
it not be well to engage a trained nurse ? ” 

No doubt it would ; but Blanche felt only too sure 
that Jack would never consent to so desirable an 
arrangement, and in fact when she tentatively broached 
it to him, his refusal was emphatic. 

“ Some cursed baggage in blue and white who would 
skip round the bed and either make love to me or 
jaw about my immortal soul ? — not if I know it ! I 
want nobody here except you and Jarvis, and if any 
nurse sticks her nose into the room. 111 shy things at 
IQ 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


146 

her until she has to bolt. I’m not as ill as all that 
either. Fulton only made out that I should have to 
go easy for a bit.” 

He alternated between defiant buoyancy and terrified 
despair, according to his physical sensations ; but, 
whatever his mood, he clung to and clamoured for 
Blanche, whose devotion he took, by some inexplicable 
illusion, for granted. Inexplicable also to her was 
this belated craving for her presence, which she was 
compelled to set down as unfeigned. It did not and 
could not diminish her antipathy for him, nor was 
this greatly augmented when, one afternoon, he ap- 
peared for a minute to reveal himself once more in his 
true colours. 

” What about that rotten play of Tristie Rolfe’s ? ” 
he inquired. ” Off the bills, I expect, eh ? ” 

” I can’t tell you,” she answered briefly ; ” I haven’t 
heard.” 

” There was a pretty distinct frost the first night, 
anyhow.” 

” You did what you could to create one,” Blanche 
observed. 

Jack chuckled. ” Think so ? Oh, well, I had to 
give tongue ; I was bored stiff. Hope I didn’t rub 
you the wrong way, though, old girl. Sorry if I did.” 

She hardly knew whether to believe in his sorrow or 
not ; but she knew that it rubbed her the wrong way 
to be addressed as ” old girl.” To that and to much 
more she had to submit in silence — must go on sub- 
mitting, she suspected, for an indefinite term of servi- 
tude. He did not *spare her ; day and night she had 
to hold herself at his beck and call ; sometimes indeed 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 147 

he was profuse of thanks, but never was he a whit less 
exacting. Her best hours were those which followed 
an access of pain and the advent of Dr. Mackwood 
with his assuaging needle. Then for a time she could 
quit her slumbering taskmaster and take stock in soli- 
tude of the changed aspect which circumstances had 
thrown upon the present and the future. Tristram 
called more than once to make inquiries ; but it was 
only when at last a visit of his chanced to coincide 
with one of these spells of release that she was able 
to receive him. 

“ How tired you look ! ” was his commiserating cry 
at the sight of her. Anne Pritchard told me that 
you were wearing yourself out.’' 

Anne would like to replace me,” answered Blanche, 
smiling, ” but unfortunately Jack won’t have her 
near him. Not that there is any fear of my breaking 
down. I am as strong as there is any occasion for me 
to be, and I shouldn’t mind anything if — if I didn’t 
so intensely mind everything ! ” 

The adifiission was wrung from her, half against her 
will, by her tense state and by the proximity of the 
staunch friend with whom her difference of a few days 
back seemed already to have faded into the remote 
past ; but she recovered herself quickly and went on 
before he could speak : 

“ Events shape themselves and us without asking 
our leave. I told you that I had made up my mind ; 
but now, you see, it has been unmade for me.” 

” Perhaps,” said Tristram, ” it is best so.” 

” Perhaps. At all events, it is so. Tell me about 
The Traitor. Is it still running ? ” 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


148 

“ One can't use so strong a metaphor as that ; but 
it is still on its legs, and AUingham boasts that he will 
flog and spur it along for another month.” 

” I think I see him at work ! If there were any 
flogging to be done, the blows ought to fall upon his 
back. You won’t go to the theatre again, will 
you ? ” 

” Heaven forbid ! I have seen enough to satisfy 
me that the piece couldn’t have found salvation with 
or without AUingham.” 

” It could,” she insisted ; ” it almost did, in spite of 
him. Maddeningly dense as he was, it was not he who 
killed it.” 

Tristram knew her too well to contradict her. 
Events might unmake her mind, but nothing that he 
could say would avail to effect that transformation, 
and indeed if she was determined to saddle Jack with 
the responsibility for a disappointment which she so 
keenly shared, the matter was not one of primary 
importance. His wish was to persuade her that the 
disappointment was not of primary importance either ; 
so he remarked : 

” These things pass away from me like water off 
a duck’s back. AUingham’s unflogged back is 
probably far more sensitive than mine. He has 
known nothing but success all his days, whereas I 
am comfortably and philosophically broken in to the 
reverse.” 

But she, on her side, knew him too well to believe 
him. 

Neither of them, for all their long intimacy, knew 
the whole that there was to be known about the other, 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 


149 

and thus their mutual sympathy was often constrained 
to be tacit. 

Success,” she said, “ is a word which has very 
little intrinsic meaning. Mr. Allingham has been suc- 
cessful just as a man who climbs up a greasy pole and 
is rewarded with a leg of mutton may be called suc- 
cessful. One doesn’t speak of him and you in the 
same breath. You have succeeded in literature ; it’s 
absurd to deny it, and nobody would dream of deny- 
ing it.” 

” Oh, I have had my greasy poles and legs of mutton 
too. One can’t have things both ways. At least, not 
simultaneously, and the natural consequence of trying 
is that one tumbles into the water. But I’m not 
drowned. I’m not even as discomfited as perhaps 1 
ought to be.” 

She understood that he did not wish to be pitied. 
Neither did she. Yet, since they could not help being 
sorry for one another, and since for years they had 
had in effect but two topics of converse — her matri- 
monial miseries and his literary activities — ^both of 
which were seemingly now tabooed, they found them- 
selves for the first time at the uneasy pass of not 
knowing what to say. 

” Is there anything in the world,” Tristram was 
reduced to inquiring, after a mute interval, “ that I 
can do for you ? ” 

She made a negative gesture. ” Nothing except 
coming to see me sometimes, and I don’t like asking 
you to do that, because I can never tell when I may 
be free. No, don’t come again until I send you 
word. It’s possible, after all, that this crisis will 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


150 

pass and that I shall no longer be needed as a sick- 
nurse/’ 

He would undoubtedly come again ; but she had 
doubts as to whether she would admit him. Her im- 
pression was that he thought her too unrelenting 
towards her atrocious husband — there had always been 
an odd streak of indulgence in his condemnation of 
Jack — ^and that he placed faith in a repentance which 
had been proved false. Well, that only left her a 
little more alone than she had been of yore. She meant 
to do her duty ; but she was not going to pretend 
either to herself or to Tristram or to Jack that it was 
a labour of love. 

There was small need for pretence so far as Jack 
was concerned. He accepted her ministrations as tell- 
ing their own tale ; if she was taciturn and irrespon- 
sive, he did not notice it ; he sang her praises loudly 
to the doctor and scouted all hints that she might 
grow weary in well doing. 

“ Not she ! Best nurse ever a man had ! She’ll 
stick to me and see me through, I tell you. You won’t 
frighten her or me by pulling a long face.” 

What did frighten him out of his wits was pain, and 
his attacks of pain tended to increase in frequency 
and violence. Dr. Mackwood, who could not always 
be at hand to subdue them, thought it best at length 
to appoint Blanche as his delegate. Anybody can 
give a hypodermic injection. He told her what, to do, 
watched her execution of his instructions and com- 
mitted the bottle and needle to her keeping. 

Now, Mrs. Maddison,” said he, “ there are just 
two things to be insisted upon. Firstly, the morphia 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 151 

must be kept under lock and key and no one but your- 
self must have access to it. Secondly, the prescribed 
number of drops must on no account be exceeded. I 
wish to lay special stress upon the latter point because 
I see the time coming when the dose that we have 
been using may prove ineffectual, and then he will 
certainly call out for more. Don’t let him have it. 
I shall be with you as soon as possible after you send 
me a message, but until I come he must bear whatever 
may have to be borne.” 

Dr. Mackwood knew his patient. Jack Maddison 
was not the man to bear anything for which he had 
a remedy at hand, and at the first symptoms of an 
approaching attack he demanded alleviation. Blanche 
could no longer leave the house, was but grudgingly 
permitted to leave the sick-room. 

” Run and get the stuff,” he would adjure her ; 
” look sharp, for God’s sake ! I shall be having the 
agonies of the damned in another minute.” 

She always complied and always obtained relief for 
herself as well as for him until one evening the foreseen 
happened and the drug failed to do its work. Then 
there was a terrible scene. The sufferer, of course, 
pleaded for an additional dose and was at first lachry- 
mose, then enraged at being met by a refusal. Implor- 
ing him to have patience and wait for the doctor was 
wasted breath. He had no patience and would wait 
for nobody. Finally he sprang out of bed and tried 
to wrest the bottle from Blanche, who, in fear of some 
such attempt, was hurrying out of the room with it. 
She wanted to kill him, he shrieked ; he knew she did 
— ^had known it all along. Pouring forth a torrent of 


152 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


epithets the like of which had never assailed her ears 
before, he struggled with her, struck her and would 
have overpowered her, had not Jarvis and Anne 
Pritchard come to her aid. It was as much as Jarvis 
and Anne Pritchard, reinforced by the butler and a 
footman, could do to hold him, and even they were 
fain to join their voices to his in begging their mistress 
to put a stop to his pain. But she stood firm, as it 
was in her nature to do. She had had precise orders 
and she was going to obey them, come what might. 
What came was pretty bad ; for her husband’s blas- 
phemous ravings made her blood run cold and she 
could not doubt that he was in real torment. After 
what seemed to her an eternity. Dr. Mackwood ap- 
peared and was hailed with mingled entreaties and 
execrations by his patient. 

Where in the devil’s name have you been all this 
time ? — curse you ! Here, give me the stuff quick — 
quick ! Oh, I’ll lie still, I won’t move ! But look 
alive, man, and clear these brutes and idiots away ! 
Can’t you see that they’re trying to murder me ? ” 

Dr. Mackwood said nothing, but cleared them all 
away and shut the door behind them. Ten minutes 
or so later he stepped forth, announcing that there 
would be no further trouble. Then he dismissed 
Blanche’s attendants and commended her for her 
behaviour. 

You acted quite rightly, Mrs. Maddison, but I am 
indeed sorry that you should have been subjected to 
such distress. It will not occur again. We shall have 
to increase the number of drops, that is all.” 

“ You authorise me to do that ? ” Blanche asked. 


THE INSIDIOUS ANODYNE 


153 


Certainly. You have given me proof that you 
can be trusted. But it is more than ever necessary 
that we should trust nobody else. The truth is that 
we are getting within measurable distance of poison 
doses. A little more, carelessly — or, as it might be, 
if he had his way, intentionally — administered, 
and ’’.... Dr, Mackwood spread out his hands 
expressively. 

“ Of course I will abide by your instructions,” 
Blanche promised ; only I hope this stronger dose 
will not break down in its turn.” 

Dr. Mackwood undertook that it should not. ” For 
your sake and on account of his intractable character, 
I am going farther than is really called for. He is 
one of those men who magnify their pangs and double 
them by force of imagination ; he is not as bad as he 
makes out. I told him so as soon as I had suppressed 
the pain, and I spoke very sharply to him. I am glad 
to say that he seemed to be heartily ashamed of him- 
self.” 

He was. Next day came grovelling apologies, tear- 
ful self-reproach, ardent asseverations — the whole 
nauseating gamut to which Blanche was habituated 
and to which she strove in vain to adjust herself. She 
did not, it is true, strive very hard. Her feeling was 
that she could have endured anything and everything 
if an end to endurance had been in sight ; but she 
could not project herself far enough into the future to 
descry any. ‘‘Jack was not dying, was not likely to 
■die. The doctor had said that he was not as bad as 
he made out. Then she remembered something else 
that the doctor had said, and the facility with which 


154 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


an end might be compassed presented itself to her 
mind. It was scarcely a temptation ; it scarcely took 
shape as a thought ; yet she had travelled some dis- 
tance beyond the point of shuddering at the recogni- 
tion that she desired her husband's death. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR 

Amongst morally forbidden, though inherently in- 
nocuous, things the wish for a fellow-creature’s death 
is by universal consent included. Perhaps this is 
because death is the very last thing that most of us 
wish tor ourselves, or possibly the majority feel, as 
Blanche did, that the mere desire borders upon a 
breach of the sixth commandment. Sidney Maddison, 
however, troubled himself so little about command- 
ments and moral conventions that he did not experi- 
ence a moment’s hesitation in hoping that his elder 
brother was not long for this world. To him Jack’s 
disappearance would imply, for certain, a vast acces- 
sion of wealth, with all its corollaries, while it might 
conceivably — almost probably — ^insure what had be- 
come in his sight as dear as unfulfilled ambitions. 
Consequently he was rejoiced to learn from an authori- 
tative source that Jack’s case was desperate. By good 
luck, he encountered Dr. Mackwood on the doorstep 
at Eaton Square, where he called to make fraternal 
inquiries, and in a few minutes he had heard enough 
to set him free from all anxiety. 

Since you ask me,” the doctor said, “ I think I 
had better give you a straightforward answer and 
155 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


156 

admit that recovery is out of the question. Of course 
I am speaking in strict confidence. The patient must 
not suspect that his life is forfeited, nor would it be 
wise at present to say anything to Mrs. Maddison. At 
the same time, I feel that some relative of his ought 
to know the truth. Like all doctors, I have had some 
experience of the troubles that are apt to arise when 
a man who does not realise that he is moribund has 
omitted to set his affairs in order. No doubt you could 
find an occasion of conveying to your brother, without 
alarming him, a suggestion which it would be rather 
hazardous for me to venture upon.’' 

“ I am sorry that it should have come to this,” 
Sidney declared, with a concerned visage ; but I 
thank you for being open with me and I needn’t say 
that your confidence shall be respected. I have little 
or no influence over my brother ; he would not, I am 
sure, be guided by me, whether his affairs were in order 
or not, and the subject is a difficult one to approach. 
Still I will see what I can do. You don’t, I gather, 
apprehend any immediate danger.” 

Upon this point Dr. Mackwood cautiously declined 
to be drawn. Immediate, no ; the end might be, so 
to speak, distant. A year ? — oh, well, a year was a 
long time. Under the conditions, a year must be 
called a long time. Nevertheless, it was not un- 
common for the advance of a mortal disease to be 
arrested during considerable periods. More than that 
nobody could say. 

Sidney was very well satisfied with such informa- 
tion as he had obtained. As for the settlement of his 
brother’s affairs, he was disposed to leave any perilous 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR 


157 

enterprise in that field alone. He was to step into 
Jack’s shoes ; he had heard that much from Jack 
himself, and the execution of the threatened testament 
whereby Blanche was to lose her jointure in the event 
of her remarriage was an affair of minor consequence. 
Let her have her heritage, hampered or not by con- 
ditions. The main thing was that within a year he, 
Sidney, would be a rich man. Or if it was not quite 
the main thing, it was at all events a very important 
one ; for, although Kitty doubtless would not think 
twice about refusing a rich man whom she did not 
love, he, for his part, simply could not afford, upon 
his actual income, to wed a dower less bride. Put like 
that, his passion had a cold and calculating sound ; 
but he liked to put things as they were, and for the 
same reason he faced the fact that Kitty did not love 
him. If of late he had sometimes had hopes, his harsh, 
unsparing recognition of his physical disadvantages 
had always risen up to mock them. Girls don’t fall in 
love with club-footed men. He said that over and 
over again to himself, not because it was an ascer- 
tained truth, (for Lord Byron’s conquests might be 
adduced in contravention of it), but in order that he 
might never forget what a tough job he had in hand. 
Tough or not, he was resolutely set upon it — so reso- 
lutely that he meant to make the girl whom he loved 
take him for her husband without loving him, well 
though he knew that such a victory would be gall and 
wormwood in his mouth. The only question was 
whether he should bide his time or strike while the 
iron was as hot as it could ever be expected to be. 
The iron, he was aware, had been heated by that absurd 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


158 

episode of the vanquished bull ; possibly also by the 
not less absurd vanquishment of young Hadow. It 
was arguable that the present was the psychological 
moment. He was going down to Marling for a week- 
end, as usual, and he concluded that he would strike 
or refrain as the occasion and Fortune might appear 
to dictate. 

Fortune, which is said to favour the brave, some- 
times seems to show a partiality for the knave, and 
Sidney, whose strategy was often knavish, had basked 
in the uncertain goddess’s smiles more than once. 
Claude Hadow, with his character for bravery under 
a cloud, was not, however, quite as unfortunate as he 
deemed himself ; for Kitty, although she had been 
provoked into turning him a cold shoulder, was more 
and more on the way to discovering that she could 
not wound him without suffering personal discomfort. 
Of late she and he had seen little of one another, Claude 
having been more in London than at Marling, while 
her hospital work kept her busy from morning to 
evening ; but it so chanced that on that same Saturday 
afternoon which witnessed Sidney’s departure from 
Paddington on an errand which she was far from 
divining she espied on the field-path ahead a listless 
wanderer who no longer presumed to waylay her, yet 
whom she was not at all sorry to overtake. 

Les beaux esprits se rencontrent/* she remarked, 
with a geniality which took him by surprise. 

I wish I could flatter myself that I am a hel esprit,'' 
was his somewhat rueful rejoinder. “ Mr. Longfield, 
who is just about to launch my modest volume, 
evidently doesn’t take me for anything of that kind. 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR 


159 

He says the waters of the Thames are not going to 
burst into flames this time.’' 

“ That’s because he’s a stingy old publisher and 
because he wants to pocket your profits,” Kitty 
affirmed. ” Don’t be put out of countenance by any- 
thing that he may be pleased to say.” 

The poet’s countenance was perceptibly brightened 
by what it pleased Miss Stanfield to say and still more 
by her intonation, in which he was quick to notice an 
unhoped-for change. He told her that he did not 
care a straw about pecuniary profits, should there be 
any, but confessed that he thirsted for some small 
measure of public recognition. Even to take rank as 
a versifier of mediocre merit would be a sort of justi- 
fication of one’s existence, he said. 

Kitty called that a ridiculous way of talking. She 
prophesied that he would reach the top of the tree and 
observed, with ^ome justice, that tree-tops are only 
to be attained by bold flights. He was altogether too 
self-distrustful. If he didn’t mind what he was about, 
people would accept him at his own valuation, which 
would never do. She spoke sincerely and, since he 
was anxious to achieve poetic success, she also wished 
it for him ; although she would have preferred to see 
him succeed in another field of action. She was fain 
to hint as much after listening patiently for a while 
to a further avowal of literary aspirations. 

When all’s said and done,” she urged, the mak- 
ing of books isn’t everything.” 

He sighed. '' But if it’s the only thing that I’m 
fit for ? ” 

“ It isn’t. You are a soldier.” 


i6o THE OBSTINATE LADY 

“ Oh, no," he answered, shaking his head, I’m not 
a soldier. I was one for a short time, but I never shall 
be again. Offering myself at intervals is nothing but 
a farce. The answer always is that I’m no good.’’ 

She did not like his despondent resignation. Do 
you mean that you are going to sit down under that ? ’’ 
she asked a trifle sharply. 

" What else can I do ? I suppose the authorities 
are right. They practically tell me that they have 
no use for officers who are liable to break down and 
disgrace themselves in action. I suppose they are 
right.’’ 

You would never disgrace yourself ! ’’ 

“ I have done it. You saw me do it.’’ 

It was about as maladroit a speech as he could have 
made. That she had seen him break down was un- 
happily true ; but she did not wish to be reminded of 
the incident, and there is all the difference in the 
world between an irresistible physical breakdown and 
the poltroonery to which he had the air of pleading 
guilty. 

Do you wish to be thought faint-hearted ? ’’ she 
cried. 

'' Of course not ; but I know very well that that is 
what you think me, and I can’t wonder or complain. 
I have gohfto take the consequences of having shown 
a faint heart. One of them is that you and the War 
Office rule me out of court as a fighting man. That 
is why I say that literature offers me the best pretext 
that I can hit upon for remaining alive.’’ 

His words would have given Kitty a conclusive 
reason, if she had needed one, for shutting the half- 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR i6i 

open door of her heart against him. Her feeling was 
that, had she been a man, she would have died a thou- 
sand deaths rather than sink to the depth of such an 
admission. She was sorry for Claude Hadow, she did 
not wish to be any harder upon him than she could 
help ; but that he would have spoken as he had done 
if he had had any real love for her was as unimaginable 
as that she could ever get beyond pitying him. 

Everybody must decide for himself what his mis- 
sion in life is,” said she coldly. Perhaps you are the 
best judge of yours.” 

Sidney Maddison could scarcely have been granted 
a more auspicious juncture for hobbling up to accost 
the pair. Like his rival on a former occasion, he had 
chosen to walk over the meadows from the railway 
station ; but this time the co-operation of an enraged 
bull was not required to put his rival to flight. Claude, 
smarting under the stroke of the lash which he had 
invited, desired nothing more ardently than to get 
away and hide his head somewhere, desired nothing 
so little as further discussion of his wretched poems 
with the benign patronage of Sidney Maddison thrown 
in. His poems were as wretched as he was himself ; 
for the time being he was utterly indifferent to their 
fate and his. Presently he muttered something about 
going down to the village to buy stamps and so effected 
an unopposed retreat. 

Sidney had an uncanny gift of divination which at 
times approached second sight. Even without it he 
would have perceived that he had broken in upon a 
discord ; aided by it he drew a perfectly accurate 
deduction. He knew that there was a possibility— 

II 


162 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

though not much more than a possibility — of Kitty's 
being moved by the ardour of an admirer who was, 
after all, young and handsome ; likewise he knew 
quite well what was certain to entail that admirer’s 
definite defeat. It was strongly borne in upon him 
that Claude Hadow’s disappearing back was a beaten 
one. 

" Our young friend," he remarked, " doesn’t look 
altogether happy. What have you been doing to 
him ? Not throwing cold water upon the poetic nre, 

I hope ? ’’ 

" On the contrary," answered Kitty, " I have been 
trying to fan the flame. But of course I am only an 
ignoramus. A breath from you would do more for it 
than any gust that I can get up." 

" Well, really I have said all that I honestly could ; 
perhaps rather more than I ought in honesty to have 
said. He has ability ; it is a pity that he has so 
little" .... 

" Pluck," said Kitty, supplying the word which 
Sidney apparently hesitated to use. Yes, it’s a great 
pity." She added, with a sigh, " You were right about 
him ; he has no courage — ^none at all. He says he 
isn’t a fighting man. What a dreadful thing to say ! " 

It was rather a dreadful thing to repeat ; but she 
was not in a temper to weigh her words. Sidney, con- 
firmed in his surmise, assumed a visage of regret. 

" Unfortunately," he observed, " we can’t all of us 
be fighting men. One way or another, there must 
always be a residue who are forbidden to join in the 
fray. As for courage, don’t you set too much store 
by it ? " 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR 163 

No, I don't. It is essential. If you set small 
store by it, it is because your own is a matter of course." 

“ Nevertheless, I am a strong, healthy non-com- 
batant. My case is harder than his ; though I dare- 
say you don’t realise that." 

She had always realised it, but never with more 
poignant sympathy than now. Strong, brave, yet 
sentenced to inaction for the cruel, inexorable reason 
that he was unable to march — ^his case was indeed 
harder than that of an ex-officer with unstrung nerves 
who had lost even the wish to march I Her eyes were 
eloquent, and Sidney pressed his advantage. 

" No, I shouldn’t have said that you don’t realise 
it. I know you do, and I’m not ungrateful. I have 
your pity, it’s all you can give me." 

She longed to give him anything that he might ask 
for. Friendship, admiration, respect — they were abso- 
lutely at his service, if they could in any degree avail 
him as a consolation. Never had it struck her as 
coming within the limits of contingencies that he might 
desire her love. She listened to him with growing 
amazement and concern when he quietly resumed : 

" You are going to pity me from the bottom of your 
heart. I am sure you are not going to be angry with 
me ; otherwise I should hold my tongue. Why 
shouldn’t I hold my tongue after having managed to 
hold it so long ? I can’t tell you ; I can only say that 
I would rather have you know the truth. I would 
rather you knew that you are and always will be 
dearer to me than all the world. Don’t think that I 
haven’t fought against this absurd love of a cripple 
for what is so plainly out of his reach. In that sense 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


164 

I may call myself a fighting man, for I have fought 
hard and long. But naturally I have fought in vain. 
A love like mine takes possession and command ; the 
most that one can achieve is to throw a decent veil 
over it. Why do I discard the veil at last ? For the 
sake of getting a little additional pity ? No ; I tell 
you frankly that I hate to be pitied even by you. 
Perhaps the real meaning of this confession is that, in 
spite of all, I had some dim, insane spark of hope and 
that I wanted it to be extinguished, just as a man who 
is well aware that he is dying wants the doctor to 
pronounce sentence and have done with it."' 

If he had cherished that spark, it suffered painful 
extinction the instant that her startled eyes met his. 
She did not love him, and it had indeed been insane 
of him to dream that she did or could. Nevertheless, 
she refrained from pronouncing sentence. 

“ I didn’t understand,” she faltered distressfully, 
” I didn't in the least understand ! We have been 
good friends, and I think you know how — how fond I 
am of you. I would do anything that I possibly could 
for you” .... 

” Only there are manifest impossibilities. But I 
am not asking for an impossibility ; I am not quite so 
foolish as that.” He raised his shortened leg, glanced 
down at it, then up at her. ” It stands to reason,” 
he said, ” that I can never ask anyone — ^you least of all 
— to marry the misshapen wretch that I am.” 

” Don't say such untrue and unjust things ! ” she 
pleaded. ” You can't really think that what you ask 
for — or don’t ask for — ^is an impossibility. As if any 
woman might not be glad and proud to rriarry you ! 


THE REWARD OF VALOUR 165 

You almost make me wonder whether you, too, aren't 
a little wanting in the courage that we were talking 
about." 

" Ah," he returned, smiling sadly, " you mustn’t 
confuse effirontery with courage. I fully recognise 
what can be and what cannot. Perhaps, as you say, 
there may be women in the world who would consent 
to marry me. I really don't know and don’t care, 
seeing that for me the world contains only one possible 
— ^and equally impossible — ^woman." 

" You are not to call me impossible ! " she cried 
somewhat too impetuously. " Whatever I may be, I 
am not that." 

At the moment it did not seem to her that she was. 
She had spoken truly in proclaiming that she was 
fond of Sidney Maddison ; she had always thought 
highly of him, and all the more so because she was 
aware that he did not commend himself to the majority 
of his acquaintances. His deformity — if deformity it 
could be called — ^had never repelled her. Certainly 
she was not in love with him ; yet she did very ear- 
nestly wish to make him happy. Moreover, the man 
whom she might have loved had just revealed himself 
to her as a poor creature, with the not unusual result 
of making her doubt whether she had it in her to fall 
in love with anybody. But she was not prepared for 
the effect of her incautious words upon Sidney, whose 
amazement, gratitude and ecstasy she had neither the 
presence of mind nor the heart to check. Afterwards 
she was at a loss to recall how it had come about that 
she and he were engaged. All she knew for certain 
was that engaged they were, that she had given he|- 


i66 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


word and that her fate was sealed. She had not even 
denied, though she had assuredly never affirmed, that 
she loved him. He evidently believed that she did, 
and perhaps it was better so. 

Sidney, sceptical by nature, proof against illusions 
and genuinely persuaded that he was in a physical sense 
unlovable, read her like a book. He triumphed and 
exulted because he had won and because victory was 
dear to him ; but there was a very bitter drop in his 
cup of joy all the same. He swallowed the bitter 
with the sweet ; he took care to be undemonstrative, 
save in his protestations of thankful humility, which 
were not wholly insincere ; he played his part as skil- 
fully as it could be played, taking nothing more for 
granted than he was entitled to take and succeeding 
in his aim, which was to make her feel that she had 
irrevocably committed herself. Yet he knew well 
enough that the price of conquest was a gnawing pain 
which would be with him for the rest of his days. The 
girl whom he loved did not love him ; the wife who 
was to be his would never love him. Looking the 
thing in the face, he made up his strong mind to that 
and had a grim inward laugh at the fatuity of human 
passions. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 

Disgust/' said Mrs. Stanfield, is no word for it. 
Nor is stupefaction nor incredulity nor anything else 
that I can lay my tongue to. There isn’t a word in 
the dictionary that meets the case, though I’ve been 
racking my brains for one all this time, instead of say- 
ing my prayers or listening to the sermon.” 

” The sermon,” observed the General, who was 
walking back from church with his wife, ” wouldn’t 
have helped you much. At least, I don’t think it 
would ; but I confess that I didn’t hear a great deal 
of it myself. I’m not as horrified as you are, you 
know ; I’m not sure that we have any business to be 
horrified. Still I don’t like it.” 

” Like it ! I should think not indeed ! Why didn't 
you tell him, without any beating about the bush, 
that you simply wouldn’t have it ? ” 

” Well, because this is the twentieth century and 
good old customs are done away with. I did, of course, 
state reasons for withholding my consent — our natural 
disinclination for a second Maddison son-in-law, his 
insufficient means and so forth. He acknowledged the 
full force of them ; but with regard to income he 
pointed out what I suppose is true, that his brother is 

167 


i68 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


dangerously ill and that his brother’s death will make 
him a rich man.” 

His riches perish with him ! Millions of money 
wouldn’t alter the nature of the beast. If Kitty hasn’t 
taken leave of her senses, all I can say is that he must 
have hypnotised her.” 

The General shook his head. My dear, you’re too 
violent. You dislike the man, and I won’t say That 
I’ve any special affection for him ; but I can’t see the 
need of calling in insanity or mesmerism to account 
for Kitty’s being in love with him. He is a very good- 
looking, very clever fellow. Why should she accept 
him unless she is in love with him ? ” 

I give it up. Ask me an easier one. No, don’t 
ask me any more crooked questions or you’ll get a 
cross answer. Let your answer to him be as cross as 
you please, only, for Heaven’s sake, let the gist of it 
be a good, round No ! ” 

General Stanfield did not see his way to being as 
monosyllabic as that. He was aware that he had a 
tolerably strong-willed daughter and he doubted his 
ability to impose more than delay upon her. Delay 
he might reasonably demand ; for Sidney Maddison 
was badly off, and expectations, however handsome, 
are open to non-fulfilment. 

Sidney, for that matter, was quite prepared to 
acquiesce in delay — had in fact signified acquiescence 
during an interview with his prospective father-in-law 
which had passed off more smoothly upon the whole 
than he had anticipated. It was not his habit to join 
in public worship ; but he had done so on this occa- 
sion for the sake of his betrothed’s company, and^ as 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 169 

he limped homewards beside her, he conjectured, not 
without amusement, what was being discussed be- 
tween the old couple ahead, to an accompaniment of 
vehement gestures on the part of one of them. Mrs. 
Stanfield, he knew, was no friend of his : he was, 
however, in a position to snap his fingers at Mrs. 
Stanfield’s animosity. He could likewise snap them at 
Claude Hadow, should he care to indulge in that petty 
token of achieved supremacy. That he did think 
this worth while was not so much due to exultation 
over a negligible and discomfited competitor as to a 
certain satisfaction in inflicting pain which belonged 
to his very nature. Because he was essentially an 
aggrieved man he liked to see his neighbours smart. 
So when he accosted Claude, who had not been to 
church, he delivered his thrust with the suddenness of 
a thunderbolt. 

'' By the way,” said he, after an exchange of desul- 
tory remarks, ” it may interest you to hear that Miss 
Stanfield and I are engaged to be married.” 

Suppose an officer, attended by a firing squad, were 
to march into your room and announce that he had 
orders to take you out and shoot you. The chances 
are that you would say nothing and step forth to meet 
death without demur or tremor. You would not have 
time to be frightened ; you would merely realise that 
something inevitable was about to happen and that 
you had got to go through with it. For the same 
reason Claude had the stoicism or the hebetude to 
answer on the instant : 

” Really ? Let me congratulate you both.” 

He stood fire as well as that^ and Sidney, who had 


170 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


called and thought him a coward, was fain to allow 
him bravery of a sort. He turned white, it was true, 
but he managed, without visible effort, to produce 
some of the commonplaces which the occasion de- 
manded, thereby disappointing as well as surprising 
his would-be tormentor. 

He was not, however, sufficiently sure of himself 
to put in an appearance at luncheon. He slipped out 
of doors, took cover behind a screen of rhododendrons, 
sank down upon the warm turf and tried to collect his 
scattered wits. 

Kitty was going to marry Sidney Maddison. No use 
in groaning out that the thing couldn’t be ; it was so. 
And why not ? What was there in this that should 
cause him, who had discarded the last vestige of hope, 
to feel as if he had received something worse than a 
death-blow ? That he had looked upon Sidney as a 
confirmed, almost elderly bachelor might give him 
ground for astonishment, but scarcely for dismay and 
misery. Nor, he supposed, was Kitty’s choice really 
astonishing. No ; it was not that he objected to 
Sidney rather than to another ; it was that, for all his 
hopelessness, he could not endure to think of Kitty 
as belonging to any man but himself. He would have 
to endure it though ; he would have to behave like a 
reasonable being and show her as calm a countenance 
as he had miraculously summoned up for Sidney’s 
benefit. The necessity of self-control (too well he 
knew that at a given moment it might be out of his 
power to control himself !) helped him a little to 
subdue the pain that gripped his heart. He had all 
the rest of his life to be wretched in, If that accursed 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 171 

Medical Board would but suffer him to go where life 
had an excellent chance of being curtailed ! 

To youth belong the extremes of bliss and woe. 
After forty years or so of sojourn upon the outer crust 
of this small planet we have survived many experi- 
ences, good and bad ; we have lost the capacity to 
believe in the permanence of any sorrow or joy and 
must acknowledge, more or less shamefacedly, our 
innate resilience. But Claude Hadow was still young 
enough to wish himself dead because a girl who evi- 
dently did not care a button whether he lived or died 
was destined to become somebody else’s wife, Kitty, 
however, was neither hard-hearted nor proof against 
qualms of conscience aroused by the young man’s 
absence from the luncheon-table. She was aware of 
having dealt rather mercilessly with him and was 
anxious to make amends ; besides which she could not 
help wondering how he had taken the news of her 
engagement. She therefore set out in search of him 
and, discovering him in the course of a few minutes, 
was put out of doubt, at all events, respecting the 
latter point. He scrambled to his feet in a hurry, held 
out his hand and said : 

“ I hear you are going to be married. I wish you 
all possible happiness. Maddison is — is a splendid 
chap in every way.” 

For an unrehearsed effort, that was not discredit- 
able ; but how was he to answer when she asked ques- 
tions which stuck knives into him ? Was he very 
much surprised ? Did he really think Sidney a splen- 
did chap or did he only say that to please her ? Was 
he sure that he did not agree with her mother, who 


172 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


had declared that, for her part, she would sooner 
espouse a debauched sot like Jack Maddison than such 
a cold-blooded cynic as his brother ? Claude said 
what came to him on the spur of the trying moment. 
Of course Mrs. Stanfield’s forcible language was not 
meant to be taken literally ; certainly he did not 
think that Sidney, who had gone out of his way to 
help a verse-making struggler, could be set down as 
cold-blooded or cynical. If he was a little surprised 
— ^well, that did not imply that there was anything to 
be surprised at. 

He could be fluent, he found, only he could not be 
convincing. His pale cheeks and shaking knees gave 
him away. A little more of this and he would dis- 
grace himself again. And Kitty, instead of doing 
him the one kindness which he tacitly implored by 
leaving him, persisted in scrutinising him with an air 
of doubt and regret. She said she could see that he 
didn’t approve ; but never mind ! She had not 
expected her friends to approve, because scarcely 
anybody knew Sidney well enough to do him justice. 
He did not try or care to be popular, and perhaps that 
was a pity ; but was it not also rather a pity that so 
few people gave themselves the trouble to look below 
the surface ? She went on in that strain until the 
tortured Claude could bear it no longer. 

You’re wrong ! ” he exclaimed desperately ; I’ve 
nothing against Maddison, nothing at all. It isn’t 
that — ^perhaps you know it isn’t that. I believe you 
do know ; I believe you have known all along that I 
love you ! It goes without saying that I am utterly 
beneath you— though you didn’t quite let it go with- 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 173 

out saying yesterday, did you ? Be indignant, be 
derisive, be what you please ; only don’t ask me to 
pretend any more, for I can’t ! ” 

She laid her hand gently on his arm and surveyed 
him with sorrowful eyes, into which tears found their 
way. It has to be admitted that there were tears in 
his eyes too. Thus for a moment they stood silent, 
and in that posture Sidney, advancing with soundless 
steps across the grass, descried the pair. 

Of course he startled them and of course they looked 
guilty. The most self-possessed of mortals must have 
worn a caught appearance under such conditions, and 
neither of them was self-possessed just then. Sidney, 
on the other hand, was. 

I was wondering what had become of you both,” 
said he in placidly goodhumoured accents. ” Do you 
meditate strolling down to the river and paddling 
about in cool places ? If so, may I make bold to pro- 
pose myself as an uninvited third ? ” 

He was entitled to propose himself in any capacity ; 
but he could not imagine that so grotesque a sugges- 
tion ran any risk of acceptance. What else did he 
imagine or conclude ? The truth, no doubt. Claude, 
vexed and confused, stammered out something in- 
audible and fairly took to his heels — ^which was per- 
haps the best thing that he could do — ^while Kitty, 
making a quick recovery, answered : 

“ Yes, I think the river would be rather nice, if 
you won’t find sculling too hot work.” 

She also was vexed and, on Claude’s behalf, appre- 
hensive. She did not at all wish to betray the poor 
boy ; yet if he had betrayed himself — as he patently 


174 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


had — ^and if Sidney should make justifiable inquiries, 
she would be unable to equivocate. 

Sidney won her unspoken thanks by making neither 
inquiries nor comments. He had been having an- 
other talk with the General, he told her, and although 
he could not say that he had been met with open 
arms, he thought he had paved the way towards peace. 

Your people don’t like me, and I’m afraid they 
never will ; but let us hope that they may resign 
themselves to putting up with me. You have made 
me feel as if nothing was too extravagant to hope for.” 

He was genuinely, touchingly humble, carefully un- 
assuming, intensely happy withal. So, at least, he 
appeared to her ; for there was nothing in his voice 
or speech to suggest the fierce jealousy that blazed in 
his heart. He had seen enough to convince him that 
she and Claude Hadow loved one another. Kitty was 
too level-headed a girl to dream of marrying a youth 
who had neither means nor prospects ; very likely 
she had accepted another man in order to put tempta- 
tion out of the question ; but, thus safeguarded, she 
had allowed an admission to be wrung from her which 
she was probably not very reluctant to make. Such 
was his reading of the situation. He had no thought 
of relinquishing his prey — far from it ! — nor any fear 
that Kitty would play him false ; but he conceived a 
hatred for his supplanter which was the more virulent 
because he had hitherto regarded the young poet 
with indulgent disdain. 

Being obliged to return to London the next morn- 
ing, he had Claude for a reluctant fellow-passenger, 
and he did not neglect that opportunity of applying 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 175 

salt to a fresh wound. He took care to be particu- 
larly courteous, but he allowed his eyes and lips to hint 
at a suppressed amusement under which the unhappy 
young man writhed. Doubtless, thought the latter, 
Sidney was acquainted with his secret — ^had possibly 
even been informed of it — and was moved thereby to 
mere compassionate laughter. That hurt him, al- 
though he said to himself that he was a long way past 
being hurt by anyone’s ridicule. Kitty at least had 
not laughed at him, and if she had compassionated 
him, her compassion had not been of a nature to 
intensify his pain. He remembered the tears in her 
eyes, and he also remembered that throughout the 
past evening her eyes had been sedulously averted from 
his. He balanced between being glad that she knew 
all and sorry that he had pronounced sentence of 
banishment from her upon himself. But that he could 
trespass no farther upon the hospitality of Marling 
was not in doubt, and for that reason amongst others 
he was on his way to take counsel with a trusty 
friend. 

To that friend his woeful tidings did not come as a 
complete surprise. Tristram Rolfe had recognised it 
as upon the cards that Kitty, irritated with one of her 
suitors and disappointed in him, might be rushed into 
an act of impetuous folly by the wiles of the other. 
Women are for ever doing such things, and this young 
woman had certain family characteristics to which 
her sister’s lifelong slave could not be blind. He 
owned, however, that he had not thought the cata- 
strophe imminent and he did not deny that it was 
pretty serious. 


176 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

You really asked for this, you know,’' he told 
Claude. “ As far as I can make out, you did your 
best to persuade her that you expected nothing but 
rejection, or rather that you put forward no preten- 
sions.” 

'' You advised me to leave her alone,” the young 
man reminded him. 

” I did, and I believe it was sound advice. By your 
own account, she was ready to hold out the olive- 
branch ; but, instead of grasping it, you gave her to 
understand that you were a whipped hound. * Then 
you’re not what I took you for,’ says she, and incon- 
tinently proceeds to accept a man who, you may be 
sure, wouldn’t give her that description of himself. 
Things are not desperate, though. In the first place, 
her parents will be dead against the match ; secondly 
— ^which is of greater importance — she is no more in love 
with Sidney Maddison than she is with me.” 

” How do you know ? ” 

Partly by observation, partly by intuition ; it’s 
enough that I do know. To set against that, the 
young lady has taken the bit between her teeth and 
she has pledged her word. I don’t say that she will be 
easy to deal with ; still there are several conceivable 
solutions. Much the best would be for her to dis- 
cover — ^as she may any day — ^what Sidney Maddison 
really is.” 

” What do you suppose that he really is ? ” 

Ah, that’s rather complicated. He really loves 
her, for certain. All the same, I don’t see Sidney 
marrying for love ; he’s too badly off, too selfish, too 
ambitious. The key to him in this instance must be 


THE RETREAT OF THE VANQUISHED 177 

that he is calculating upon his brother’s death, which 
would make him rich enough to afford any luxury.” 

” I don’t think he’s a bad fellow, you know,” said 
Claude. 

Well, to put it plainly, I do. To put it still more 
plainly, I am sure he is. The problem is to open 
Miss Kitty’s eyes. Meanwhile, I am afraid your posi- 
tion at Marling is not over pleasant.” 

It’s impossible. I was thinking of offering myself 
to my uncle and aunt in Lancashire ; though they 
hate to have their habits interfered with and have been 
at some pains to impress upon me that they are too 
old and too ill to receive visitors.” 

Tristram laughed. Then let me propose to you a 
host who is neither old nor ill and whose spare room 
is entirely at your service. I needn’t say that it will 
be a joy to me to give you shelter for as long as you 
please, and explanations are ready made. What more 
natural than that you should wish to transfer your- 
self to London at a time when your book is about to 
appear and when applications to the War Office make 
it desirable for you to be on the spot ? Furthermore, 
I forbid you, for obvious reasons, to run away.” 

‘‘ I wish,” sighed Claude, that the War Office would 
forbid me to stay another day in England ; but that 
won’t happen, multiply my applications as I may.” 

“ There’s no harm in keeping in touch with White- 
hall anyhow, and there might be a good deal of harm 
in getting out of touch with Marling. When Kitty’s 
engagement is broken off you may be wanted.” 

” Not by her.” 

By me, then. Come ! I haven’t requested any 

IZ 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


178 

personal favour of you before that I can remember; 
so it will be rather ungracious of you to refuse me 
this small one/' 

Claude had no inclination to refuse. ** You're 
awfully good," he said. 

" I shall try to be," answered Tristram, laughing 
and patting him on the shoulder. " Don't be too 
down-hearted. My quiver contains an arrow or two ; 
why shouldn’t one or other of them hit the mark ? 
Hit or miss, I won’t fail to draw my bow as soon as 
I can get a clear sight of the object to aim at." 


CHAPTER XV 


THE PLOTTERS 

What Tristram had in mind when he boasted of hold- 
ing arrows in his quiver was that he knew of several 
ways whereby Sidney Maddison might be exhibited 
in an unflattering light, for Sidney during the pro- 
gress of his cautious career had been guilty of more 
than one shabby action. But these only rendered 
him vulnerable in so far as Kitty might choose to give 
ear to detraction — a thing which it would not be at all 
like her to do. Having made a choice of which she 
assuredly would not be long in repenting, she would 
adhere to it unless Sidney himself could be inveigled 
into lowering her esteem of him, and this, upon reflec- 
tion, did not seem to be such an unpromising enter- 
prise. Granting that Sidney's love for the girl was 
real and strong, his love for his own comfort would 
surely in the last resort prove stronger. Cost him what 
it might to draw back, he, as a poor man, would never 
go the length of leading a dowerless bride to the altar. 
Before taking that irrevocable step he would want 
to be very sure of shortly inheriting his brother's 
wealth, and Jack was in no way bound to make 
Sidney his heir. It followed that Jack could, if it 
should so please him, forbid the banns. Not indeed 
179 


i8o THE OBSTINATE LADY 

by a direct veto, but by a menace (easily procurable) 
which might be counted upon to make Sidney hesitate 
and temporise. Would not a hesitating and tempor- 
ising Sidney be apt to reveal himself in his true colours 
to a young lady who had a soul above sordid counsels 
of prudence ? She might not condemn the man for 
his prudence, but she would certainly perceive that 
he was not ready to fling prudence to the winds for 
her sake. It was not a particularly hopeful plot, nor 
was Tristram a very willing plotter ; still one must 
do violence to one’s natural disposition and even to 
one’s principles when there is no alternative in 
sight. 

He betook himself to Eaton Square, hoping to see 
and confer with Blanche as a preliminary measure, 
scarcely hoping to get speech of her sick husband. 
Luck, however, so far favoured him that he had no 
sooner been admitted than Jack, up and dressed, 
marched out of his den on the ground floor with an 
extended hand and a bluff welcome. 

“ Hullo, Tristie ! Life in the old dog yet, you see. 

Come in and have a dr no, I was forgetting. 

Doctor’s orders, not to mention my good wife’s. 
They’ll be making me take the pledge next.” 

He seemed to have forgotten also his grudge against 
his old friend. He was in high good humour and 
declared that he was going to be as right as ever 
again ; though his shrunken frame and ashen colour 
told another tale. For the rest, Tristram was spared 
the trouble of leading up to his objective ; for im- 
mediately after he had been pushed into an armchair 
Jack began : 


THE PLOTTERS 


i8i 


** I say, this is a rum start about Sidney and Kitty, 
eh ? Must have made you jump a bit — what ? ” 

Well,'' answered Tristram, “ I have noticed for 
some time past that he has been rather assiduous 
in his visits to Marling." 

He has, has he ? Of course I haven’t had a chance 
to notice anything there. If I was to show my face 
at Marling they'd run for pitchforks and things. By 
what Blanche tells me, they’d be glad enough to take 
a pitchfork to Sid, for that matter." 

What does she think of it ? ’’ 

“ Who ? — Blanche ? Oh, she don’t say much, but 
I take it that she isn’t best pleased. It’s a poorish 
match for the girl, you know." 

One would say so." 

No two ways about that. Takes Sid all his time 
to make ends meet as a bachelor, I suspect. Nice girl 
too. Hates me, like the rest of ’em ; but bless your 
soul, I don’t mind. Can’t expect ’em to be fond of 
me. What the deuce can have made her fond of Sid, 
I wonder ! Well, you can never account for women." 

“ Does the engagement meet with your approval ? '’ 
Tristram inquired. 

My dear chap, I’ve nothing on earth to do with 
it. If I was the girl’s father I daresay I should dis- 
approve pretty loudly ; as it is, I’ve only to buy her 
a wedding present and thank the Lord I’m not in her 
shoes. Change me into a pretty girl and you wouldn’t 
find me binding myself for life to the most calculating, 
cold-blooded beggar in Europe. What beats me is 
Sid’s doing a thing of this kind. I always thought 
that, if he married at all, he’d go in for some widow 


i 82 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


with a five figure income. His own doesn’t touch four, 
you may depend upon it.’' 

It was one of Jack’s many incongruities that, for 
all his habitual open-handedness, he had never offered 
to add a penny to his younger brother’s income. 
Apparently he had no such intention now, for he 
went on : 

“ They’ll be jolly hard up. Sid may make a trifle by 
his pen, but it can’t amount to much, and his screw 
at his Office won’t rise yet awhile.” 

” Of course,” remarked Tristram meditatively, “he 
has his expectations.” 

The effect of this tentative shot was instantaneous. 
It was to be assumed that Jack could not have wholly 
ignored a factor which stared him in the face ; but 
Jack, save at occasional panic-stricken moments, had 
a marvellous capacity for closing his eyes to several 
contingencies which faced him — to death above all. 

“ Expectations ! ” he called out, with a suddenly 
clouded brow. ’* Who told you he had any ? I’m 
neither dead nor dying, and I can leave everything I 
possess to the Home for Lost Dogs if I like. He had 
better not build too much upon his expectations, if it 
comes to that.” 

Tristram could not help feeling a little ashamed of 
his facile success. He had to remind himself that his 
cause was good, if his methods were uncongenial to 
him. In any case, he thought he had said enough 
for the present, and, as it chanced, a diversion was 
provided for him by the entrance of Blanche, who 
came in to see whether her husband wanted any- 
thing. 


THE PLOTTERS 


183 

Her husband wanted her. To want her, after hav- 
ing for years wanted nobody so little, had developed 
into his normal state. He beamed at her, made her 
sit down on a low chair beside him and held her hand 
while he extolled her conjugal virtues. 

Here’s my doctor ! ” he cried. Been worth more 
to me than the whole College of Physicians or any 
minx of a trained nurse, I can tell you. You wouldn’t 
think to look at her that she’d been within call day 
and night for I can’t remember how long. There’s 
simply no tiring her ! ” 

One look at her would have sufficed to show that 
that feat had been fully accomplished. One look was 
as much as Tristram could find it in his heart to direct 
at her haggard face, the dark semi-circles under her 
eyes, her aspect of sustained martyrdom. 

Jack, who was looking at Tristram, not at her, pro- 
ceeded with his parrot-like eulogy, repeating the same 
phrases over and over again, emphasising them with 
affectionate gestures and perhaps, (for with him good 
humour and malice were often commingled), enjoying 
this small triumph over a friend who might have been, 
but was not, his rival. Tristram stood it as long as 
he could, then got up to take his leave, Blanche rising- 
simultaneously and stepping towards the door, as if 
with the intention of following him out of the room. 

Jack did not seek to detain her. 

I expect you two want to talk over the new 
family alliance,” he remarked. '' I don’t know 
whether you’ll be able to make head or tail of it. I’ve 
been telling Tristie that I can’t.” 

I shall be upstairs if I am needed,” said Blanche 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


184 

with her hand on the door, and her dull voice seemed 
to imply a hope that she would not be. 

“ That’s all right,” responded Jack cheerfully ; “I 
know you’re never far off. Give us a kiss before you 
go, old girl.” 

She performed that abhorrent act. Time had been 
when she would have disdained to take any notice of 
such a demand ; but she had arrived at the pitch of 
almost hugging enforced indignities, as an encircled 
scorpion will sting himself to death in despair of 
escape. She turned upon Tristram in the hall outside 
and exclaimed breathlessly : 

” You see ! — ^you see ! ” 

He had seen, and his heart bled for her ; yet the 
ordeal through which she was passing was irremediable 
and he had nothing to offer her but empty sympathy. 

“ Perhaps,” he was constrained to murmur, ” it 
won’t be for long.” 

She lifted her hands to her head and shuddered. 

I begin to think that it will last interminably,” she 
answered. “ He is much better ; Dr. Mackwood says 
he has an iron constitution. Do I horrify you ? ” 

Tristram shook his head. ” Oh, no ; why should 
you horrify me ? We are in the same boat, you and 
I, and I don’t see how we can possibly help ourselves. 
Wishes, after all, kill nobody.” 

“It is very nearly as if they did,” she declared. 
“ Not for you — there is no reason for your wishing a 
man who has treated you as he has done to live. But 
I am his wife and I want him to die— which is mon- 
strous. Do you know, I sometimes actually want to 
kill him ! ” 


THE PLOTTERS 


185 


'' You won’t do that,” said Tristram, smiling. 

” No, I shall not do it ; but isn’t it just as bad to 
have the wish to do it ? And I could do it easily, 
remember. A few extra drops of the morphia which 
I have to give him most days would end his sufferings 
and mine. I have thought of that more than once. 
Now don’t say that you are not horrified at me, 
because I know you are.” 

She did not allow him time to reply, but turned 
and fled up the staircase, herself horrified by a con- 
fession to which she had for the first time been im- 
pelled to give verbal shape. 

Both she and Tristram had, in the stress of the 
moment, clean forgotten Sidney’s affairs. Not so 
Jack, who, when left to his own company, recurred 
to rumination upon them, recurring likewise to the 
memory of a hint which had made his blood boil. If 
he had overheard the colloquy which was taking place 
within a few yards of him, the boiling of his blood 
would doubtless have been accelerated after a different 
fashion ; but he had no sort of suspicion that Blanche 
desired his death, while he had something more than 
a suspicion that Sidney did. Of course, now that he 
came to think of it, Sidney did and must. What an 
ass he had been to miss what was as plain as a pike- 
staff ! What an ass not to understand why Sidney 
had tried to set him against Blanche with a cock-and- 
bull story ! What an ass to fall into the trap and 
announce that he had made a will in his sly brother’s 
favour ! It might have puzzled him to say just why 
he was so infuriated by the discovery that Sidney had 
hopes which he himself could hardly have helped 


i86 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


entertaining, had he been in Sidney’s place. Doesn’t 
everybody covet a fat inheritance? Probably the 
thing that stung him was this brutal reminder that he 
was within calculable distance of death. In his heart 
he knew it, though he hated and shrank from acknow- 
ledging it. Like a wounded beast, he snapped right 
and left and was eager to take vengeance upon the 
first person who brought acknowledgment of the truth 
home to him. 

It was at this singularly inopportune juncture that 
Sidney walked in. Sidney was a little curious to 
ascertain what his brother thought of him in the novel 
character of a Benedick ; but he anticipated nothing 
more formidable than clumsy chaff ; and in fact Jack, 
being on his guard, accorded him the looked-for recep- 
tion. 

'' A nice sort of a blooming old fraud you are ! 
Set up for a despiser of petticoats, and here you are, 
letting yourself be knocked flat by a chit of a girl who 
hasn’t a sixpence to bless herself with ! I should 
never have believed it of you.” 

” I have some difficulty in believing it of myself ; 
but nobody knows his own weaknesses until they get 
the whip hand of him,” replied Sidney sententiously 

And, as nobody is ever so simple as to believe the 
truth, I won’t ask you to believe that I am marrying 
for love.” 

My dear chap, I’m bound to believe that you are, 
because there can’t be any other reason. Hope you’ll 
find the course of true love run smooth, that’s all, but 
how about Papa and Mamma ? Not over enthusiastic, 
I should guess.” 


THE PLOTTERS 187 

No ; but I hope, with patience, to overcome their 
quite natural objections .to me/’ 

“ You do, do you ? Well, if you can get over your 
own devilish natural objection to a pauper establish- 
ment, there’s no saying what’ll stop you. I suppose 
you know what you’re about, and it’s your affair any- 
how, not mine.” 

” I don’t think,” answered Sidney quietly, ” that 
we shall starve.” He added, after a pause, ” I am 
glad to see you looking better.” 

Jack’s screwed-up eyes, which were on the alert, 
told him that his brother was indeed glad — ^not be- 
cause he was looking better, but because he was looking 
worse. The fact that he was looking worse was re- 
flected back to him from the other’s face and sent a 
chill to his heart which, however, he managed not to 
betray. 

” Oh, I’m heaps better,” he cheerily affirmed. 
” Mackwood was here this morning and he says there’s 
no reason why I shouldn’t live to be ninety. Seems 
that he was altogether out in his what-d’ye-call-it — 
diagnosis, isn’t that the word ? Thought I’d got some 
damned disease that I haven’t got at all. So much 
for doctors— what ? ” 

Jack Maddison had been a truthful man all his life 
long. Whether this was to be accounted to him as a 
virtue or whether, as his brother would have asserted, 
he was too great a fool to be anything else is im- 
material : the result was that his bold lie carried 
conviction and that Sidney, taken aback, lost com- 
mand of countenance. Of no avail was it to Sidney 
that he recovered himself with the utmost despatch 


i88 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


and produced unfaltering congratulations ; his dis- 
may, if but momentary, had been palpable and he had 
lost the game. 

“ Upon my word, old chap,’" Jack resumed, “ I feel 
as if I owed you an apology. My going off the hooks 
would have made you enough of a Crcesus to marry 
the cook if you wanted to, wouldn't it ? Rotten luck, 
eh ? " 

I am sure you know that I have never given a 
thought to anything of that kind," said Sidney, in- 
wardly cursing his brother and false Dr. Mackwood 
and spiteful Fate. 

Jack grinned. You haven't ? That’s funny. 
But you're a funny fellow, Sid — always were. Talk- 
ing of that, it was a bit funny of you — though I dare- 
say you meant well — to rub it into me that poor 
Blanche was looking forward to being left a widow 
and marrying Tristie Rolfe." 

That was your view, unless my memory is at 
fault," returned Sidney somewhat uneasily. If I 
suggested anything to you, it was only that Rolfe, 
whose devotion to your wife is notorious, might not 
be anxious for you to live long. But very likely I 
was mistaken." 

" Oh, well," said Jack, yawning, " it makes no odds 
whether you or I discovered a mare’s nest. You put 
my back up at the time ; but, as I say, I’ve no doubt 
you meant well. I'm not worrying about Tristie and 
his devotion to Blanche. I’ve had proof enough these 
days of her devotion to your humble and unworthy 
servant. '■ 

Sidney was not concerned to disparage Blanche, 


THE PLOTTERS 


189 

whose ultimate interest in her husband’s estate was a 
matter of comparative indifference to him. Ready to 
his tongue were glib, eulogistic phrases, while his 
thoughts, despite the very unpleasant shock that they 
had received, were busy with the advisability of re- 
gaining a confidence which appeared somehow or other 
to have been shaken. He had to bear in mind that 
he might at any time be cut off with a shilling ; also 
that, even if the imbecile doctors had blundered. 
Jack’s life was by no means a good one. Presently 
he assumed a seriously solicitous air and said : 

“ It’s evident that you have had a let-off this time, 
and I most sincerely rejoice that you have ; but I do 
l^ope, Jack, that you won’t let the lesson of your ill- 
ness be lost upon you. Whatever Dr. Mackwood 
may say, I am sure that you can’t afford to go on 
playing tricks with your health in the future as you 
have in the past.” 

” No fear ! ” returned Jack ; '' I’ve done with wild 
oats, you’ll be glad to hear. Sworn off everything, 
and Blanche and I are going to live together like Darby 
and Joan for the rest of our days. Can’t help wonder- 
ing what you and Kitty are going to live like, though. 
Blest if I see how you’re going to live at all upon your 
small means ! ” 

‘" An engagement,” answered Sidney imperturbably, 
” does not imply an immediate wedding. Indeed I 
should hardly be justified in calling our engagement 
an accomplished fact, seeing that we have still to get 
General Stanfield’s consent. In any case, it is not 
unlikely that we may have to wait awhile.” 

To wait for what ? Jack, who had no difficulty in 


190 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

guessing, only laughed rather disagreeably and ob- 
served once more, “ Well, it’s your affair.” 

But the disclosure of Sidney’s calculations was very 
much his brother’s affair. When Jack was alone he 
clenched his fists and ground his teeth, giving vent to 
the rage which only glee at Sidney’s discomfiture had 
empowered him to hold in check. He jumped up, 
strode to his writing-table, seized a page of foolscap 
paper and scrawled upon it : ” This is the last Will 
and Testament of me John Maddison ” — under which 
he had but a few lines to inscribe. Then he rang the 
bell and told the butler to call Jarvis ; whereupon they 
two duly witnessed the signature of John Maddison. 
This done, the testator — all vows to the contrary not- 
withstanding — ^treated himself to three glasses of port 
in quick succession 


CHAPTER XVI 


DELIVERANCE 

That Blanche Maddison was meek and long-suffering 
to a fault was the opinion of all her nearest relations, 
who had ceased to be patient with her obstinate 
patience. She had indeed put up with so prolonged 
a succession of affronts and injuries as to warrant them 
in concluding that nothing would ever rouse her to 
turn upon her persecutor. But to a nature like hers 
these things are cumulative, and she was perhaps 
nearer the limit of endurance than either she or they 
suspected when her husband first essayed measures of 
conciliation which she loathed and then exposed his 
perfidy by wrecking Tristram’s play. Just as that 
relatively minor offence had sufficed to render him 
unpardonable, so the indignity that he had put upon 
her by requiring her to kiss him in Tristram’s presence 
had goaded her into the avowal that she had some- 
times felt tempted to take his life. It is true that she 
was worn out by her vigils and that her nerves were 
unstrung. Shortly after her hurried flight upstairs 
Anne Pritchard found her in her bedroom, sobbing 
hysterically, with her face buried in her hands, while 
tears trickled through her thin fingers — a spectacle 
such as that faithful attendant had not witnessed 
since her mistress’s childhood. 


192 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


“ Oh, my dear, my dear ! ” cried the old woman, 
distressed and irate, “ what has he been doing to you 
now ? ’ ’ 

Blanche uncovered a ravaged face. Nothing, 
Anne, nothing at all. It’s only that I am so tired. I 
shall be better in a few minutes.” 

” You’ll go straight to your bed and stop there, 
that’s what you’ll do,” Anne decreed in a resolute 
voice. ” Tired indeed ! I should think you was 
tired. Now a good night’s rest you’re going to 
have for once ; so you’d best make up your mind to 
that.” 

Blanche made some show of resistance. ” But, 
Anne, he may want me.” 

” Let him want ! ” returned the old woman fiercely. 
” If he wants the doctor, he can send for the doctor, 
but you he’ll leave in peace till tomorrow.” 

In all conscience she had earned a respite, and that 
last request of Jack’s had imbued her with a sickening 
dread of its possible repetition. She ended by com- 
promising. Should Mr. Maddison have one of his 
attacks of pain, she was to be called at once ; other- 
wise he must be told that she was not well enough to 
leave her room. 

There was fair ground for hope that Jack, who had 
been free from pain for a couple of days, would not 
stand in need of her services ; but three glasses of 
port, coming on the top of a fit of mixed fury and 
despondency, had done Jack no good, and at the very 
time when Anne was putting her mistress to bed 
Jarvis was performing the same office for a fractious 
master who had suddenly discovered that he wanted 


DELIVERANCE 


193 


to go to sleep. He was in truth drowsy and remained 
so for some hours, refusing to touch the dinner which 
was brought to him later, but calling for brandy and 
getting it, notwithstanding Jarvis’s remonstrances. 
Then he slept until about ten o’clock, when he woke 
with a start in agony, and there was nothing for it 
but to summon Mrs. Maddison and morphia. Blanche, 
who had also been sleeping, was aroused and informed 
by the reluctant Anne. 

** He’s bad again and screeching something awful, as 
usual. Ought to be ashamed of hisself to make such 
a noise. Slip on your dressing-gown, my dear, and 
give him his dose. We’ll soon have him quiet.” 

The process of quieting him was unfortunately pro- 
tracted by a series of mishaps. Blanche, half awake 
and unnerved, as she always was, by his shrieks and 
oaths, found her hand so unsteady that she could not 
trust herself to measure out the dose and had to call 
in Anne’s assistance. Then there was a great scene, 
owing to the patient’s refusal to let Anne insert the 
needle. Nobody but Mrs. Maddison knew how to do 
it and nobody else should touch him, he swore. The 
end of it was that Anne pushed her trembling mistress 
aside and performed the little operation deftly enough ; 
but as minute after minute passed without the drug 
taking effect. Jack took it into his head that they were 
in a conspiracy to deceive him and that he had not 
been given a full dose. Nothing that they could say 
availed to disabuse him of this idea. He knew what 
it was ; that dirty old rascal Mackwood had put them 
up to playing a trick upon him. But he was going to 
have the stuff — ^by God he was ! — and he would 

13 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


194 

damned well swallow it rather than bear the torments 
of hell any longer ! 

Finally he sprang out of bed and made a dash for 
the bottle, which Blanche clutched and bore away 
with her out of the room, seeing no other chance of 
defeating his purpose. She was not pursued. She 
gained her bedroom, locked herself in and for a minute 
listened, panting, to sounds of a scuffle, followed by 
silence. Presently Anne knocked and was admitted. 

He’s sound asleep,” the old woman announced, 
somewhat out of breath. ” Dropped off all of a 
moment just as I was thinking I should have to catch 
hold of his throat. That Jarvis he’s no more use 
than a baby. Well, there’s enough for one night ! 
Now, my dear, if he wants dosing tomorrow, you 
leave him to me. I’ve done it once and I can do it 
again. You’re not fit for such rough work, and so I 
shall tell the doctor.” 

” I must obey Dr. Mackwood’s orders,” said Blanche 
faintly. ” Perhaps he won’t be pleased with me for 
having allowed you to take my place even once. But 
oh, Anne,” she exclaimed, letting her head fall back 
despairingly, ” I don’t know that I can go on ! I feel 
as if it was killing me.” 

” That it never shall ! ” Anne vowed. ” No, please 
God, we’ll see that brute die first I ” 

He won’t die,” Blanche moaned under her breath, 
too exhausted to rebuke an aspiration which she was 
conscious of sharing ; ” he is not at all likely to die.” 
Then she straightened herself up in her chair and made 
a gallant effort to conquer her weakness. ” I think 
I had better go back to him,” she said. ” I am not 


DELIVERANCE 


195 

sure that we made the dose strong enough. I was 
so afraid of overdoing it, and if he wakes 

'' Leave this room you don’t,'’ interrupted Anne with 
decision. Bed’s the place for you. In case of any 
trouble the doctor can be sent for. Jarvis ’ll let me 
know pretty quick, you may depend. He’s too timid 
to do anything by himself.” 

Blanche was in no condition for arguing. She sub- 
mitted to be sent to bed once more and only asserted 
her authority when she detected Anne surreptitiously 
removing the key from the door with the evident 
intention of locking her in. That measure of pre- 
caution she peremptorily forbade, and the old woman 
yielded, remarking : 

“ It’s all one, my dear. You’ll not go back to him 
this night without I lose the use of my arms.” 

Now Jarvis, if not precisely a hero, was a steady 
and trustworthy servant. He had of late slept in 
Jack’s dressing-room and could be relied upon to 
answer his master’s call on the moment. For Jarvis 
to desert his post was a very rare occurrence, and 
that he should have judged this particular evening an 
appropriate occasion to slip out of the house in con- 
nection with private and personal matters was just 
one of those unfortunate coincidences which have led 
mankind in all eras to credit the existence of malign 
^pernatural agencies. Jarvis, taught by previous 
experience, considered himself perfectly safe. His 
master would not come to before six or seven o’clock 
in the morning at earliest, and he did not propose to 
be absent for more than an hour or so. It turned out 
that the lady with whom he had a provisional appoint- 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


196 

ment detained him rather longer than he had antici- 
pated ; still when he stole upstairs in the dead of the 
night, the house was reassuringly quiet and no qualms 
of conscience disturbed his rest. 

Nor was his rest broken the next morning by the 
customary rap on the wall which meant that his master 
was awake. There was no rap at eight o’clock ; none 
had come by the half hour, and shortly afterwards 
Jarvis entered the adjoining room to await orders. 
Mr. Maddison did not stir. He was lying like a log 
on his side, but he was not breathing heavily, as usual. 
He was not breathing at all ! 

Such was the alarming discovery that awaited Jarvis 
as he peered down from the bedside and caused him to 
gasp out in horror, '' Good God, he’s gone ! ” 

His master’s hand, when he touched it with shaking 
fingers, was stiff and cold as ice ; so was his forehead. 
His eyes were closed ; his jaw had dropped ; beyond 
all doubt or question Jack Maddison was a dead man. 

Terror and remorse overwhelmed Jarvis until he 
pulled himself together and reflected that nobody in 
reason could hold him responsible for what had hap- 
pened. His master, it was clear, had passed away in 
sleep, had as likely as not died after his (Jarvis’s) 
return. No good purpose, therefore, could be served 
by owning to a temporary neglect of duty, and Jarvis 
at once made up his mind that nothing should be said 
about that. Meanwhile, Anne Pritchard was the 
proper person to break the news to Mrs. Maddison ; 
so he stationed himself on the landing, knowing that 
Anne would come upstairs presently with her mis- 
tress’s morning cup of tea. He had not long to wait. 


DELIVERANCE 


197 


Well,” said Anne sharply, when she and her tea- 
tray had been intercepted, ” what is it now ? You 
look as though you’d seen a ghost.” 

” I’ve been seeing what’s given me pretty near as 
much of a turn,” answered the valet in a hoarse 
whisper ; ” I’ve been seeing a corpse.” 

You don’t tell me that 1 ” ejaculated Anne. 

Jarvis nodded. ” Stone dead when I went into his 
room. He didn’t seem to have stirred since you and 
me left him last night. It’s awful sudden ; though 
one may call it a mercy for him to have been took 
like that. I’m sorry. He had his faults ” .... 

” He had,” said Anne. 

” But he was a kind-hearted man when he was him- 
self.” 

” I don’t know so much about that. If you was to 
ask me, I should say that when he was himself he was 
a fair brute. You may be sorry, Mr. Jarvis, but I’m 
not. There’ll be peace for my poor lamb now. 
Well, you’d best telephone to the doctor.” 

” Viiat’s the use ? All the doctors in London 
couldn’t bring him back to life.” 

'' If they could, I shouldn’t be in no hurry to call 
them up. But we shall want Dr. Mackwood to give a 
certificate of death. I suppose you was in the dress- 
ing-room all night ? ” 

” Oh, yes.” 

” And didn’t hear nothing.” 

” Not a sound. He must have just slept away.” 

” H’m ! — a better end for him than what he 
deserved.” 

To Anne Pritchard a dead ruffian was no more de- 


igS THE OBSTINATE LADY 

serving of pity or regret than a live one ; but^ knowing 
her mistress as she did, she foresaw that the shock of 
the tidings which she had to impart would be apt to 
produce a revulsion of feeling in one whose heart and 
conscience were alike tender. She therefore took 
Blanche her tea and waited for her to drink it before 
beginning cautiously with — 

'' You won’t need to trouble nor worry today, my 
dear.” 

And, as Blanche merely looked interrogative, she 
went on : ” We should be thankful when there’s an 
end to pain, shouldn’t we ? And if he didn’t bear pain 
as well as some, I won’t deny but he had pain to bear 
— ^let alone what he gave.” 

Blanche sat up in bed and turned wide eyes upon 
her old nurse. ” Do you mean that he is dead ? ” 
she asked. 

Anne made a motion of assent. ” Passed away 
quiet and peaceful in his sleep. Don’t you take on, 
my dear ; it’s all for the best. Everything as could 
be done for him you did, and soon or late we’ve all 
got to die. But it’s only a few can hope to have death 
made as easy for them as it was for him.” 

” Yes ; that is true,” murmured Blanche. 

To Anne’s astonishment, she required neither 
soothing nor consoling. Startled of course she was; 
but she did not affect grief and had all her wits about 
her. She asked a few questions, was informed of what 
Jarvis had said and expressed some surprise that her 
husband had not been heard to move during the 
night. 

” My fear, as I told you, was that we had not given 


DELIVERANCE 


199 

him enough of the morphia. I expected him to wake 
up and be in pain. Are you quite sure that he didn’t ? ” 
Jarvis was sure. Besides, you would have heard 
him if he had.” 

Jack’s shouts and screams had been wont to be 
audible all over the house : it was inconceivable that 
he should have allowed himself to suffer for a moment 
without making his valet aware of it. Blanche 
appeared to be satisfied and only inquired whether 
Dr. Mackwood had been sent for. She was perfectly 
— unnaturally, Anne thought — composed. She got 
up and had herself dressed, saying that she must be 
ready to see the doctor when he came. 

” Oh, I am not going to break down,” she said, 
smiling a little at her attendant’s anxious face; ” I 
don’t feel nearly as like breaking down as I did yester- 
day. Anne dear, you understand better than anyone 
that it is not possible for me to be distressed at this. 
Why should I make any pretence with you ? As far 
as I can see, nobody has been to blame, and — and I 
suppose, it is not unusual for people who are dan- 
gerously ill to die on a sudden of heart failure.” 

Such fatalities are indeed common enough, and 
doctor’s certificates to that effect are given on most 
days of the week ; only when death has rather plainly 
been due to another specific cause, the most accommo- 
dating of doctors has to mind what he is about. That 
was only why Dr. Mackwood, on being shown into Mrs 
Maddison’s bedroom, was perceptibly agitated. He 
had seen the body of his late patient, he had listened 
to what Jarvis and Anne Pritchard had to relate, he 
had interrogated them bojth with some pertinacity. 


200 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


but without eliciting from either of them particulars 
which they ought to have been able to supply, and now 
it was his imperative, if painful, duty to interrogate 
Mrs. Maddison. Close upon the heels of condolences 
-which had to be formulated, though he knew that poor 
Mrs. Maddison could not in the nature of things be a 
very disconsolate widow, came his necessary and dis- 
tressing statement. 

It grieves me to be obliged to add to your troubles, 
my dear lady, but I fear there can be little doubt that 
an unfortunate mistake has somehow been made. 
Everything points to your husband having succumbed 
to an over-dose of morphia.'' 

That is impossible," answered Blanche. " When 
he was given the morphia about ten o’clock last night 
he had no more than the usual dose — perhaps rather 
less." 

" Yes, but your maid tells me that you did not give 
it yourself." 

" I could not. I was very tired and my hand shook 
too much. I saw the drops measured out though." 

" Are you quite certain that the number was not 
exceeded ? " 

" Perfectly certain." 

" Then he must have had a subsequent dose. You 
did not leave the bottle with either of the servants, I 
presume ? " 

" Oh, no ; I locked it up immediately, as I always 
have done." 

Dr. Mackwood wished to see it, and when it was 
handed to him out of the small hanging cupboard in 
which it was kept, his face lengthened. 


DELIVERANCE 


201 


“ Dear, dear ! he muttered. And then — “ I am 
very sorry to see that as much has been used as would 
account for three doses. Do I really understand you 
to say that only one has been administered since I was 
last here ? ’' 

“ Only the one at ten o’clock last night.” 

Yet the needle-marks show that he had two. It 
looks as though somebody had been tampering with 
this drug while you were asleep.” 

Blanche could not regard that as an admissible hypo- 
thesis. Her keys, it was true, had been left on the 
dressing-table, but it was most improbable that any- 
one could have entered her room without waking her. 
Besides, who would have wished to do so ? Her maid, 
who might have been aroused by a demand from Mr. 
Maddison and who, with the best intentions, might 
have been unwilling to disturb her ? Oh, no ; Anne 
would not have ventured to do such a thing as that, 
or, if she had, would certainly have confessed it. 

Anne was sent for, nevertheless, and was subjected 
to searching queries for which she had but one answer. 
The first she had heard of her master’s death had been 
from Jarvis that morning. Jarvis, when summoned, 
displayed rather more embarrassment, being plagued 
by an accusing conscience ; still, he was ready to 
affirm on oath that he had not been called by his 
master in the course of the night, much less had he 
intruded into his mistress’s bedroom. 

” Nor yet he wouldn’t have trusted me to give him 
the stuff, sir. He’d have had Mrs. Maddison up, the 
‘same as he always did.” 

Dr. Mackwood, with the dread of the Coroner before 


202 ! 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


his eyes, and odious suspicions forcing themselves upon 
him against his will, fell gloomily silent. His personal 
situation was not too agreeable ; for he had laid him- 
self open to censure and was pretty sure to receive it ; 
but, to do him justice, he was more disquieted on Mrs. 
Maddison’s behalf than on his own. Mrs. Maddison 
did not appear to realise in the least that an unex- 
plained occurrence cried aloud for explanation. She 
simply refused to believe that her husband’s life had 
been inadvertently taken. She thought it just possible 
that she might have spilt some of the contents of the 
bottle while trying to steady her hand ; as for the 
needle-marks, there were so many of them, recent and 
other ! She showed no sign of alarm even when in- 
formed that an inquest was unavoidable, and there 
was no use in alarming her at that stage. Dr. Mack- 
wood left the room sad at heart and in no wise re- 
assured by her self-possession. He had not practised 
for the best part of a lifetime without acquiring some 
knowledge of feminine psychology. 


CHAPTER XVII 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 

Dr. Mackwood beckoned to Jarvis to follow him down- 
stairs. Some obligatory formalities, he said, must be 
attended to. To begin with, notice of death, accom- 
panied by a doctor’s certificate, would have to be 
lodged at the Registrar’s office and ought, strictly 
speaking, to be attested by some one who had been 
present at the time of death or by a near relative of the 
deceased. It was obviously impossible to comply 
with the first of these conditions and the attendance 
of the widow would not be insisted upon. He then 
proceeded to draw up a certificate which he would 
fain have worded otherwise and might perhaps have 
worded otherwise, had he not been a cautious and con- 
scientious person. This he instructed Jarvis to deliver 
in the proper quarter, adding : 

“ I think Mr. Sidney Maddison should be informed. 
You had better go to his address and tell him. No 
doubt he will come to the house. Say that I should 
be glad to speak to him and that I hope it will be con- 
venient to him to meet me here this afternoon.” 

“ Very good, sir,” answered Jarvis. Is there any- 
thing else that I can do ? ” 

” Probably Mrs. Maddison would wish you to tele- 

203 


204 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


graph to her family. Now, my man, I want you to 
exert your memory once more. You were in the room 
when what you all agree was the last dose of morphia 
that your master had was administered. Do you 
think that any of the liquid was spilt while the bottle 
was being handled by Mrs. Maddison or while Mr. 
Maddison was trying to get hold of it ? '' 

Not that I noticed, sir.” 

” Can you say that none of it was so spilt ? ” 

” Oh, no, sir ; I couldn’t go so far as to say for 
certain.” 

” Very well ; that may be important, although .... 
still it is not unimportant. Now, if you will be advised 
by me, you will keep your mouth shut until you are 
required — ^as you will be — to give evidence at the 
inquest. I speak in your own interest.” 

Jarvis was fully alive to the advisability of reticence 
in his own interest. He was not going, if he could 
help it, to divulge the awkward circumstance that he 
had taken French leave for several hours during the 
previous night. Moreover, other interests seemed 
likely to be served by his silence ; for he could not 
but entertain a conjecture which the doctor had found 
irresistible. Somebody had, intentionally or uninten- 
tionally, given the patient an over-dose ; nobody 
except Mrs. Maddison had had, or could have had, 
access to the drug. So — ^there you were, and, look at 
it how you would, it was a bad job. Jarvis was 
attached to his mistress, who had always treated him 
kindly, and would have been sorry to do her an injury ; 
yet he was very much afraid that that was what he 
had accomplished by exposing her to a temptation 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


205 

which, but for the accident of his absence, could hardly 
have assumed practical shape. 

Must have given it to him whilst I was out,” he 
reflected. Daresay she didn't mean to poison him 
either. She ought to have owned up ; that’s what 
she ought to have done. Anybody may make a mis- 
take when it comes to poisonous drugs. Well, she 
won’t give me away, nor yet I shan’t give her away. 
Lord knows she had excuse enough, poor soul, even if 
she did do it deliberate.” 

There was one person, at all events, besides Jarvis, 
who would have excused anybody for putting Jack 
Maddison out of the way. If wishes could kill, Sidney, 
after his interview with his brother, would cheerfully 
have emulated Cain ; but since wishes are impotent 
and civilization has its fettering drawbacks, Sidney 
had gone home in a mood far removed from cheerful- 
ness. He believed that Jack would live on, were it 
only to spite him ; he knew that marriage upon such 
a wretched income as his was not to be thought of, 
and he could not doubt what postponement would 
mean. Yet the thought of relinquishing the prize 
that had been within his grasp was intolerable to 
him. Intolerable not only because he loved Kitty 
with all the force of his strong, repressed nature but 
because defeat converted his blood into vinegar. To 
have leaped so far and so triumphantly only to discover 
that by a stupid little miscalculation he had over- 
reached himself — it must not be ! Nevertheless, the 
ruminations of a restless night brought him no nearer 
to any decisive plan of action than was implied in 
throwing the onus of his deferred marriage upon 


2o6 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


General Stanfield*s shoulders. That could doubtless 
be contrived ; only would it not give Kitty, who loved 
another man, the pretext for breaking with him after 
which she must be hankering ? Sidney could be 
brave and bold upon occasion, but he did not like 
taking chances, and the chance that Jack, free from 
mortal disease, would drink himself into his grave in 
a year or two had become precarious. 

Miracles, we have been told in accents serenely 
defiant of contradiction, do not happen, and it is cer- 
tain that few people in our day expect them ; yet now 
and then there comes an occurrence which, by reason 
of its extreme and felicitous appositeness, does seem 
to partake of the miraculous, and it says a good deal 
for Sidney's self-command that, shot up in one moment 
from dark abysses to sun-warmed summits, he was 
able to treat Jarvis as the bearer of sad tidings. Jarvis 
ran him to earth at his Office, was edified by his con- 
cerned demeanour and, mindful of Dr. Mackwood's 
counsel, told him no more than that his brother had 
“ passed away quite peaceful" in slumber. That, to 
be sure, was enough, and more than enough, for the 
enchanted Sidney, who would have returned heartfelt 
thanks to his guardian angel, had he imagined that he 
possessed one, and who piously observed that such a 
death, however afflicting to survivors, ought to be 
deemed merciful and enviable. Of course he would go 
at once to Mrs. Maddison. It was now near the 
luncheon hour, but he would not delay proceeding to 
Eaton Square, where Jarvis undertook that refreshment 
should be provided for him. This, indeed, was found 
to have been made ready on his arrival ; but he was 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


207 


requested to partake of it before seeing Mrs. Maddi- 
son, who, though “ bearing up wonderful,” had, it 
appeared, been persuaded to take a short rest. 

Sidney, seated in the spacious diningroom which 
had presumably become his diningroom, tasted what 
was infinitely more satisfying to his soul than any- 
thing that his late brother’s chef could furnish for his 
palate. Gone for ever were care, doubt and dread ; 
his position was unassailable, his future assured ; he 
even forgot the fly in the ointment represented by 
Claude Hadow. Almost he could have drunk, in a 
glass of Jack’s port, that obliterated youth’s health, 
so persuaded was he of the invincibility of his own 
wealth. 

Blanche, when he was asked to join her in the 
drawingroom, thanked him for his celerity in placing 
himself at her disposal, but did not seem to think that 
he could be of any immediate service to her as a prop. 
She was, in fact, expecting Tristram, to whom she had 
sent a message, and would fain have got rid of her 
brother-in-law as soo!n as well-worded sympathy had 
been expressed and acknowledged. Sidney, however, 
had no intention of quitting the house. He reminded 
her gently and considerately that there were arrange- 
ments to be made, matters to attend to which it 
devolved upon him, as poor Jack’s nearest of kin, to 
take off her hands. 

“ Of course I may not have been nominated as one 
of his executors, though in all probability I am. Per- 
haps that is a point which we ought to ascertain, if we 
can. I suppose you don’t happen to know where 
his will is ? ” 


2o8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


Blanche made a negative gesture. '' He never said 
anything about it to me. Aren’t wills generally left 
in the lawyers’ keeping ? ” 

‘‘ Sometimes they are ; but it is usual for the tes- 
tator to retain a copy. I think, if you don’t mind, it 
would be well to look amongst his papers, in case 
there should be instructions or wishes of his to be 
carried out.” 

Sidney was very sure that his inheritance was not 
in jeopardy : less than twenty-four hours had elapsed 
since Jack had ironically condoled with him upon his 
deferred fruition of it. Still he wanted tangible proof 
that all was as it should be ; so Blanche, at his in- 
stance, produced her husband’s keys and together they 
went straight to the drawer in the writing-table down- 
stairs which did in fact contain the object of their 
quest. They came upon it forthwith — a bulky docu- 
ment, the gist of which was soon disentangled from 
legal verbiage by Sidney’s practised eye. It was per- 
fectly satisfactory. The younger brother succeeded 
to the whole estate, real and personal, subject to the 
payment of a few legacies to servants and a life charge 
of £5»ooo to the widow, without any attached condi- 
tions. Sidney could scarce refrain from congratulating 
her, while he mutely congratulated himself. Then he 
carelessly picked up a folded sheet of paper which 
lay in the drawer and, after glancing at it, turned cold 
from head to foot. 

” I revoke all previous wills and leave everything 
of which I may die possessed to my beloved wife, whom 
I hereby appoint my sole executrix.” 

Such were the words that met Sidney’s horrorstruck 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


209 


gaze. They were signed, the signature was attested 
and they bore the date of the preceding day. He 
folded the paper up quickly, retained hold of it and 
said nothing. Blanche, whose eyes had wandered to 
the window, had not noticed his action. Perhaps it 
was a perilous action, perhaps not. Less perilous, 
anyhow, than allowing her to see the abominable 
script. His first idea was to destroy it ; but how about 
the witnesses, who must be cognizant of its existence ? 
Well, if it could not be found, their testimony would 
have no consequence. To dispute it on the ground 
of undue influence might, however, prove a wiser 
course. Sidney had time to say all this to himself 
while remarking tranquilly to Blanche that he did not 
think there was any need for them to pursue their 
investigations farther, and she was about to reply that 
in that case she would not detain him when Tristram 
was announced. 

Tristram and Blanche met under the restraining 
influence of a third person in whose presence their eyes 
only could speak, and Blanche's were not eloquent. 
There were sundry things which she longed to say to 
her friend ; but both she and he were aware of being 
closely scrutinised, and what they did say was of 
necessity trite and commonplace. Tristram, always 
acutely sensitive, not always accurate in his swift in- 
tuitions, received a chilling impression. She had sent 
for him ; yet, now that he had come, she had the air 
of standing on her guard with him, and he wondered 
whether she had at the same time sent for her brother- 
in-law. Sidney allowed it to be inferred that she 
had. 

14 


210 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


“You find us," said he, “ engaged upon the horrid 
matters of business which, unhappily, can’t be neg- 
lected at a time like this. But I believe I can deal 
with what remains to be done. You and Jack were 
intimate for so many years, Rolfe, that you may know 
whether he had any wish with regard to the — er — 
place of his interment.” 

Beyond a very strong objection to the preliminary 
postulate of death, it was unlikely that Jack had ever 
bestowed a thought upon the subject of burial. Tris- 
tram shook his head, wished that Sidney would go 
away and stole an interrogative glance at Blanche, who 
shared that wish, but saw no way of giving effect to 
it. He gathered, however, that she wanted him to sit 
Sidney out ; so a rather difficult conversation was pro- 
tracted until two more visitors came to interrupt it. 

Mrs. Stanfield and Kitty, promptly responsive to 
Jarvis’s telegram, had hastened, like Sidney and Tris- 
tram, to proffer first aid ; though, unlike their prede- 
cessors, they were not sure that such an errand was 
a mere matter of form. To them Jack Maddison’s 
death could only be a subject for relief and thankful- 
ness ; but Blanche, with her stubborn notions of 
wifely duty and (as they had sometimes been con- 
strained to believe) her underlying affection for the 
worst of husbands, was not incapable of lamenting him. 
Accordingly, embraces were closer and lasted rather 
longer than usual. Sidney had thus a surcharged 
moment of yearning and anguish, evoked by the sight 
of his betrothed, before it came to his turn to accost 
her. The fateful sheet which he was still holding in 
his right hand when she extended hers to him was 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


2II 


pushed hastily into his pocket. That is, it would 
have been so disposed of, had he not forgotten that 
he was wearing a coat unprovided with outside pockets. 
The paper fluttered to the ground and was picked up 
by Tristram, who was standing just behind him — 
one more instance of the malignity of inanimate things, 
or possibly of the subservience of all mortals to the 
decrees of destiny. 

There was a brief interchange of enforced inanities, 
to which the sole touch of originality was imparted by 
Mrs. Stanfield's remark of, “ Well, shocking as this 
is in some ways, one does feel that it’s simplifying.” 
Then the three ladies went away together and Sidney, 
turning on his heel, was confronted with Tristram, 
who held out the folded sheet, saying : 

“You dropped this a minute ago.” 

The sheet was folded ; but that was no proof that 
Tristram had not mastered its laconic contents, as he 
might have done at a glance. Quick as thought Sid- 
ney decided that there was but one course for him 
to adopt and without hesitation he answered : 

“ Thank you. I was about to ask your opinion of 
a document which I found in my brother’s drawer at 
the moment when you arrived. I had not time to 
show it to Blanche. You will see that it purports to 
be a will, executed as lately as yesterday, in which he 
bequeaths everything unconditionally to his widow. 
Alongside of it 'was a much more formal testament — 
representing, I can’t but believe, his considered judg- 
ment — in virtue of which I should succeed, as I have 
always been led to suppose that I should, to his estate, 
subject to an annuity of £5,000, payable to Blanche. 


212 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


I wish you would tell me how you think I ought to 
act under the circumstances.” 

It was perhaps natural enough for a disinherited 
brother to make that appeal, and Jack's disposal of 
all his earthly goods might fairly be deemed unnatural. 
At the same time, Tristram could not be in doubt as 
to the steps that would have to be taken. He could 
only say : 

“lam very much surprised and very sorry for you. 
It seems thoroughly unjust and unfair. But I take 
it that the second will must hold good, unless there is 
some irregularity about it.” 

Sidney shrugged his shoulders. “ I am afraid I 
shall have to contest it. To the best of my belief, it 
is regular in form ; but it was evidently executed in 
great haste and probably in obedience to some impulse 
or influence for which the testator may not have been 
answerable.” 

“ I am sure that it was not executed under his wife's 
influence,” was Tristram's quick rejoinder. 

“ Oh, so am I, and I needn't tell you how I should 
hate to put forward any suggestion of the kind. Still 
I fear that it is certain to be made. Only yesterday 
afternoon Jack spoke to me of my prospects as his 
heir. That this should be a genuine statement of 
what he desired strikes me, I must confess, as incon- 
ceivable.” 

It could not strike Tristram as being that, though 
he did think it most deplorable that such a statement 
should have been placed on record. The outcome, 
no doubt, of a passing gust of anger, Jack, had he lived 
another day, would in all probability have torn it up ; 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


213 


but Jack was no more, and his handiwork instigated 
by me,’' Tristram ruefully reflected) survived him to 
cause all manner of mischief and expose Blanche to the 
cruellest surmises. For one crazy instant he was 
tempted to say, You are right ; Jack cannot have 
realised what he was about. Let us put a match to 
this piece of paper and forget that we ever saw it.” 
But he remembered, as Sidney had done, that there 
were witnesses to the testator’s signature. Besides, 
one can’t commit a felony. 

To two disquieted men entered Dr. Mackwood, with 
a furrowed brow and a communication to impart which 
deepened the disquietude of one, if not both, of them. 
Dr. Mackwood had to be careful. He wanted to talk 
things over, but he thought it best to confine himself 
to the bare announcement, which he was bound to 
make, that his late patient’s death had been due to 
an overdose of morphia and to add that he was com- 
pletely in the dark as to how that fatal occurrence 
had come about. No, he could not, when asked, say 
that he had formed any theory upon such information 
as was available. Somebody, it would seem, had 
unfortunately disobeyed his strict orders ; but Mrs. 
Maddison, the valet and the maid were positive in 
their denial of having done so. He could only hope 
— or fear — that the legal inquiry which must ensue 
might throw some light upon the mystery. 

If there was more of hope than fear in Sidney’s mind 
after this strange disclosure, Tristram was in the 
opposite case. Not for an instant did he believe what 
Sidney more or less evidently and Dr. Mackwood pos- 
sibly believed ; yet he could not shut his eyes to what 


214 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


the Coroner and his jury would be disposed to believe. 
The drug had been confided to the charge of one per- 
son alone, and when the doctor made regretful admis- 
sions respecting the quantity of liquid left in the 
bottle and the existence of fresh needle-marks, the 
inference was unavoidable. 

Sidney, looking very grave and concerned, said : 
‘‘ It seems strange that my sister-in-law should have 
told me nothing. Do you think that she has grasped 
the full significance of this painful state of things ? ” 
I don’t think she has,” Dr. Mackwood answered. 
“ I spoke to her without any ambiguity ; but, as far 
as I could make out, she is still under the impression 
that her husband died a natural death.” 

” Let her be left under that impression,” struck in 
Tristram decisively. ” She is the first person to be 
considered, and as she has been quite properly told 
the truth, nothing can be gained by troubling hqr 
farther. For my part, I am certain that you have 
heard the whole truth from her, so far as she knows it.” 

His eyes challenged Dr. Mackwood and Sidney, 
who lowered theirs. However, they assented to his 
view, and Dr. Mackwood added : 

” Please don’t think that I am suggesting any in- 
tention of concealment on Mrs. Maddison’s part. She 
was perfectly straightforward and precise in her 
answers to me ; only I could not persuade her that an 
additional injection of morphia had been made. I 
agree that it would be useless to plague her with more 
questions for the present.” 

” Some or all of us,” Sidney observed, ” will soon 
have to reply to questions on oath, I take it. Until 


DIVERS EMOTIONS 


215 

then we can do no good and may do harm by indulg- 
ing in speculations.” 

For all that, he inwardly indulged in them to a com- 
forting extent. Rocks doubtless were still in the 
offing ; but there was now at least a prospect that 
that pernicious will of Jack’s might suffer shipwreck 
on one of them. Should Jack’s widow perish inci- 
dentally, so much the worse for her 1 


CHAPTER XVIII 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 

Tristram was uncertain whether or not to leave 
Eaton Square after the doctor's departure. It was to 
be assumed that, as Blanche had summoned him, she 
wished to confer with him, and he was intensely 
anxious to see her for a few minutes in private ; but, 
now that she had her people with her, privacy could 
hardly be hoped for. Moreover, Sidney, who remained 
standing, had the appearance of politely wondering 
what he was waiting for. Blanche settled the ques- 
tion by coming into the room just as he was unwillingly 
making up his mind to quit it. 

'' Mother and Kitty are going to have tea in the 
drawingroom," she told Sidney. " Won't you join 
them ? " 

Sidney cheerfully acquiesced. His sister-in-law and 
Tristram might compare notes to their hearts' content 
for all he cared. He had now nothing to keep back 
from either of them, though it seemed by no means 
improbable that they would have several things to 
keep back from one another. His lips twisted them- 
selves into a sardonic smile while he left the pair to 
make what they could of a somewhat complex situation. 

For Tristram it had its initial complexities ; but 

216 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 


217 

these were in part brushed away by Blanche’s immedi- 
ate remark of — 

‘'You will have been hearing Dr. Mackwood’s report, 
and I see by your face that you appreciate my posi- 
tion.’* 

“ The doctor seemed to doubt whether you fully 
appreciated it,” Tristram answered. According to 
him, you are persuaded that Jack’s death was due to 
natural causes.” 

” I may have said so to Dr. Mackwood, but of course 
it can be shown that that was not the case. He was 
indubitably killed by a poison dose, and everything 
goes to prove that I was the only person who could 
have given it to him. You can’t come to any other 
conclusion, can you ? ” 

Her face and voice were a trifle hard ; yet her abso- 
lute composure was surely incompatible with guilt or 
even with consciousness of possible inadvertence ! 

” I am quite certain,” Tristram declared, ” that 
whoever brought about his death, you did not.” 

” Even after what I said to you yesterday ? ” 

” I remember very well what you said. I told 
you at the time that you would never do what you 
professed to have felt tempted to do, and your answer 
was that you would not. You can’t do me the wrong 
to imagine that I gave any more importance than 
they deserved to wild words which had no real mean- 
ing. Forget that they were ever spoken.” 

” Perhaps you will not be allowed to forget them. 
There is to be an inquest, you know, and you may be 
required to give evidence.” 

” I don’t think that is at all likely ; but of course. 


2i8 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


if I were, I should make no allusion to what passed 
between us yesterday/* 

Wouldn’t you have to swear that you were telling 
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth ? ” 

“ I suppose so. Witnesses, however, can only 
answer questions, and, in the highly improbable event 
of my being asked whether you had ever to my know- 
ledge betrayed any wish or intention to take your 
husband’s life, I should say No with a clear conscience.” 

Did she look relieved ? He had a horrible, quickly 
stifled fear that she did. But her next words made 
him ashamed of that fugitive spasm. 

” If you believed me guilty, I don’t think I should 
care much what else might happen to me.” 

Of course he did not believe in her guilt ; he would 
have believed anything, no matter how extravagant, 
rather than that. He scouted the bare idea, entreat- 
ing her to put it outside the range of discussion, and 
she smiled, as if pleased and even a little amused by 
his fervour. The puzzling and rather distressing 
thing was that, although she clearly understood what 
might happen to her, she did not appear to be interested 
in exculpating herself. She listened with an air of 
detachment to various possible solutions, dismissing 
them, one by one, as though she had not been per- 
sonally concerned in the issue. She, for her part, had 
no solution to proffer. She simply could not account 
for Jack’s death and did not seem inclined to try. 

” I don’t think the truth will ever come out,” she 
said ; ” I don’t see how it can.” 

Tristram, with whom analysis of the human subject 
had become a second nature, had occasionally found 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 


219 

the woman whom he loved elusive. Although he knew 
her thoroughly in all her moods, there had been times 
when he had been conscious that she was purposely 
baffling him. She was doing that now. He felt that 
she was holding something back, and this was torture 
to him ; for of course it was of the last importance 
to her that nothing within her knowledge should be 
unrevealed. Well aware as he was that pressing her 
would serve no purpose", he did violence to his better 
judgment by pleading for her full confidence, and the 
result was not happy. 

You don't believe in my innocence after all, then ! ” 
said she. 

He had to go away without having quite convinced 
her that he did. She accepted his earnest assevera- 
tions and declared that there was no need for him to 
repeat them ; but she cut the interview short, saying 
that she must return to her mother. He was not to 
agitate himself about her, because, in spite of adverse 
appearances, she had nothing worse to dread than 
the uncomfortable ordeal of a public cross-examination. 

As if that were not enough ! That she would be 
suspected, if not directly accused, of having made away 
with her husband was a certainty, and would not this 
accursed incident of a will drawn up in her favour at 
the last moment wear the aspect of an added motive ? 
Tristram, returning sorrowfully to Chelsea, imparted 
his emotions and apprehensions to Claude Hadow ; 
for he knew that he could trust the young fellow, and 
he longed to hear how the whole chain of circumstances 
would affect an unbiassed intelligence. His auditor 
may not have been wholly unbiassed, but was at all 


220 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


events sufficiently intelligent to say, when the narra- 
tive had been brought to a conclusion : 

One thing we may take for granted. Mrs. Mad- 
dison had no hand in this.” 

” Bless you ! ” exclaimed Tristram gratefully. 

” Oh, well, I mean, if she had done it accidentally, 
she would have said so and it’s unimaginable that she 
should have done it with intention.” 

” Unimaginable to us, yes ; though some might 
say that nothing else is imaginable. Who, it will be 
asked, could have done it if she didn’t ? ” 

” One can only make guesses. Mine is that the man 
killed himself.” 

” How could he ? ” 

” Easily enough. He comes to, after an insufficient 
dose, feels the pain beginning again, knows that she 
will refuse to let him have any more of the drug and 
is mad to get it by hook or by crook. So he steals 
into her bedroom, finds her fast asleep and sees her 
keys on the dressing-table. The rest is the affair of a 
couple of minutes. He would make no mistake over 
such a simple operation as sticking a needle into his 
skin, but nothing is more likely than that he would 
make a mistake about the number of drops required. 
And if he did, it would be pretty sure to be a mistake 
on the side of excess. So he completes the job to his 
satisfaction, replaces the bottle, locks it up, gets back 
to bed and falls into his last sleep.” 

The hypothesis, if somewhat far-fetched, was not 
to be dismissed out of hand in the total absence of 
a more plausible one. Tristram snatched at it and 
took comfort from it until he remembered something 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 


221 


that he had abstained from mentioning. His decision 
to mention it now gave the measure of his confidence 
in his young friend. 

“ You are in all my secrets ; so I daresay you will 
understand that Blanche can have no secrets from me^ 
without my being conscious of her having them. Well, 
her whole manner and language made it evident to 
me that she was resolved not to say as much as she 
could have done. She didn’t kill Jack ; you're right 
there. But — I half think that she knows who did.” 

” I shouldn’t be surprised. She might have caught 
him in the act, seen that it was too late to stop him, 
hoped that it would be all right and afterwards been 
afraid to confess.” 

” She wouldn’t be afraid.” 

” Then do you suggest that it was the maid or the 
valet and that she is trying to screen one or other of 
them ? There’s nobody else in the picture, you 
know, except her husband himself.” 

” I suggest nothing,” sighed Tristram despairingly ; 
” I’m bankrupt of suggestions. All I am sure of is 
that she is not guilty, and I thank you from my 
heart, for being as sure of that as I am. Because, 
you see, we must not expect other people to agree 
with us.” 

To expect that would indeed have been to expect 
rather too much. Tristram, after having let himself 
go as above in the presence of an out-and-out sym- 
pathiser, would have been disinclined, even if he had 
had the opportunity, to seek sympathy elsewhere. 
One brief, feverish colloquy he had with General 
Stanfield just before the inquest ; but this was not of 


222 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


a nature to encourage him, for the poor old gentle- 
man was himself in manifest need of encouragement. 

I don’t like it, Rolfe,” the General confessed ; ‘'I 
tell you plainly that I don’t like it. Good God ! to 
think that a child of mine should be in danger of 
being charged with murder ! For that’s what it comes 
to. Don’t you see that it does ? ” 

Nobody could help seeing that that was what it 
came to, and Blanche herself did not shrink from 
admitting that the inquiry might be fraught with 
grave consequences for her. Nevertheless, she ex- 
horted her dumbfoundered mother and sister to take 
heart and banish their fears. 

It will be disagreeable,” she said ; still I canT, 
after all, be proved to have done what I never did.” 

At the inquest she was cool and collected and said 
what she had to say without tremor or hesitation. 
Her husband had had his prescribed injection of 
morphia soon after ten o’clock on the night of his 
death. She had not given it to him with her own 
hand, because she was unwell and exhausted at the 
time, but she had superintended the operation, which 
was performed by her maid, and was positive that no 
more than the usual number of drops had been em- 
ployed. It was true that her husband, suspecting 
that he had not had a full dose, had attempted to 
wrest the bottle from her ; but he had not succeeded, 
and she had at once locked it up in the cupboard in 
her bedroom where it had afterwards been found. 
She could not explain the alleged diminution of its 
contents. It was most improbable that anybody 
had entered her bedroom before the following morning. 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 


223 


when her maid had informed her of what had happened. 
She had thought then, and still thought, that death 
must have been due to heart failure. Yes, she was 
aware that such an opinion was irreconcilable with 
the doctor's pronouncement. When the Coroner 
somewhat apologetically inquired whether it was not 
the case that she and her late husband had been 
upon terms of estrangement, she replied that that 
had been so, but that during his illness she had, by his 
wish, been in constant attendance upon him. 

Dr. Mackwood, who was rather closely interrogated, 
was chiefly concerned to accomplish his own exonera- 
tion. He said that in a case like that of the deceased 
it was not unusual nor, in his opinion, imprudent to 
place such a drug as morphia in the custody of a 
properly instructed nurse or other attendant. It 
was, in fact, practically necessary to do so. His late 
patient had been afflicted with a mortal disease which 
gave rise to periodical spasms of intense pain, and of 
course a doctor could not always be at hand to subdue 
them. That disease was liable to terminate fatally 
at any time, though death had not, in his judgment, 
been brought about by it. Certainly it was possible 
for a hypodermic injection to be self-administered. 
It was likewise possible that an unfortunate error 
had been committed by the person administering it. 
Asked whether the patient could have got out of bed, 
gained access to the drug, dosed himself and returned 
to his own room unheard and unobserved, he answered 
that such a question lay outside the sphere of his 
professional knowledge. He could only repeat that 
the deceased had died of an overdose of morphia and 


224 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


that the marks on the body had led him to conclude 
that two separate injections had been made shortly 
before death. He was not, however, prepared to 
swear positively to that. 

Jarvis was a confused and unilluminating witness. 
He began by describing himseif as a light sleeper, then 
made haste to own that at times he was what you 
might call a heavy one, adding that he had felt very 
tired after his exertions on the last evening of his 
master's life. His main anxiety being to evade dis- 
closure of the fact that he had deserted his post, he 
allowed it to be gathered that he might very well 
have slept through any sounds of disturbance in the 
adjoining room. He had no* reason to suppose that 
his late master had contemplated suicide ; but, on 
second thoughts, he did call to mind hearing him vow 
that he would drink the stuff up rather than go on 
suffering as he was doing. That was just before the 
struggle with Mrs. Maddison for the bottle. He did 
not think that any of the liquid had been spilt in the 
course of it ; though mind you, he was not saying 
but what something of the sort might have occurred. 

Anne Pritchard stood examination well enough 
until she lost her temper. There was really no excuse 
for her doing so ; but she often did lose it without 
excuse and always when anyone dared to disparage 
or molest her beloved mistress. No sooner, therefore, 
did she discern the drift of certain queries than she 
became wrathfully and indiscreetly voluble. Admon- 
ished to control herself and keep to the point, she 
retorted that that was just what she was doing. The 
point was that insinuations were being made which 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 225 

should not be borne with while she had the use of her 
tongue. She then proceeded to use that organ to 
such purpose that there was no stopping her. Her 
dear mistress, she declared, was one of them as wouldn’t 
harm a fly, let alone a savage beast, and as for that 
rascally husband of hers, she had slaved night and 
day to keep life in him, though goodness knew he had 
been nothing but a curse and a scourge to her ! The 
late Mr. Maddison’s iniquities and Mrs. Maddison's 
angelic patience were dilated upon until Anne’s breath 
gave out, and she wound up with — 

'' Say he killed himself, say Jarvis or me killed him 
if you like ; but be ashamed of yourself for casting a 
doubt upon that poor innocent lamb ! ” 

The above outburst was too vehement and ill- 
advised to tell in Blanche’s favour with a perplexed 
jury ; but it was reserved for Sidney Maddison to 
prejudice her case more seriously than doctor, servants 
or circumstances had done. Sidney’s evidence was, 
to all seeming, given with considerable reluctance. 
He looked like a man who did not wish to tell all 
that he knew or thought. He had visited the deceased 
a few hours before the latter’s death and had found 
him fairly well in bodily health ; but he knew nothing, 
except by hearsay, of what had taken place later. 
Since it was put to him, he must own that he had had 
some reason to suspect that his brother’s brain was 
beginning to give way. What reason ? Well, he 
would rather not enter upon that ; he did not think 
that it pointed to any intention of suicide and he 
submitted that it was not relevant to the purpose of 
the present inquiry. The Coroner being of a different 

15 


226 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


opinion, the witness had to divulge the existence of 
the two wills which he had found in his brother’s 
drawer. He was bound to say that he could not 
suppose the testator to have been in possession of his 
normal faculties when penning the second of them. 
The impression produced upon Sidney's hearers was 
that Mrs. Maddison, at all events, stood to profit in a 
surprising degree by her late husband’s sudden demise. 

The Coroner told the jury that, after the medical 
evidence which they had heard, they would have no 
difficulty in finding that the deceased’s death had been 
caused by an over-dose of morphia. It would be 
their duty to determine, if they could, by what hand 
this had been administered, and in debating that 
point they would have to bear in mind that there 
was no direct evidence to guide them. Several theories 
might be considered admissible. It was not, they had 
been told, impossible for a h5^odermic injection to 
have been effected by the patient himself, supposing 
that he had contrived to secure the bottle from which 
it seemed to be unquestionable that the dose had 
been taken. Again, Mrs. Maddison or the maid 
might, at a time of admitted agitation, have unwittingly 
used a larger quantity of the solution than they ought 
to have done ; although in that connection he must 
remind them that the marks on the body had led 
Dr. Mackwood to believe that there had been a subse- 
quent dose. Finally, it might be that the dead man’s 
life had been taken not by misadventure but of set 
purpose. It would be for them to decide whether or 
not they were justified in adopting one or other of 
these findings. Should they feel unable to do so, 


DUBIOUS TESTIMONY 


227 


their verdict would have to be in consonance with the 
medical testimony. He thought it right to add 
that Mrs. Maddison's evidence had been given in a 
thoroughly clear and straightforward manner. 

The jury, after deliberating for a short time, found 
that the deceased had met with his death in conse- 
quence of an excessive dose of morphia, but that the 
evidence was insufficient to show whether the drug 
had been administered by himself or by some other 
person. The Coroner observed that, having regard to 
the few and inconclusive facts available, no other 
verdict could have been returned ; and it is probable 
that neither he nor the jury nor anyone else in court, 
with the exception of Tristram Rolfe and Anne 
Pritchard, felt much doubt that Jack Maddison's 
existence had been terminated, designedly or other- 
wise, by his wife. 


CHAPTER XIX 


A WILL AND A WAY 

After the funeral, a species of family council was 
held in the diningroom at Eaton Square, to which 
Tristram Rolfe was admitted, but which Blanche did 
not attend. Reports of the inquest had appeared in 
all the daily papers ; comments upon a mysterious 
affair, of which it was intimated that the last had 
probably not yet been heard, had not been wanting, 
and General Stanfield, terribly upset by these, won- 
dered what was to be done or whether anything could 
be done. 

This shocking business,'’ he said, will have to 
be cleared up somehow or other. I think we must 
all feel that. Things can’t be left as they stand.” 

Tristram feared, but did not say, that there was 
little likelihood of their being allowed to remain as 
they stood. Mrs. Stanfield, on the other hand, was of 
opinion that, unpleasant though they were, they could 
be lived down and that, after all, they might have 
been worse. What went a long way towards con- 
soling Mrs. Stanfield was the disinheritance of Sidney, 
who might surely now be regarded as a dispelled night- 
mare. 

“ If you can imagine a worse situation, my dear,” 

228 


A WILL AND A WAY 


229 


returned her husband testily, '' you have the advan- 
tage of me. There's no use in mincing matters. What 
we have to face is that everybody who can put two 
and two together will believe that our daughter killed 
the man. As a. fact, everybody does seem to believe 
it." 

One who doesn't," Kitty proclaimed, indicating 
herself with a resolute forefinger. 

Tristram threw her a grateful glance. “And 
another ! " he chimed in. 

Sidney Maddison, the remaining member of the 
conference, drummed on the table with his fingers, 
looked regretful and said nothing. Sidney judged 
that it would not do for him to commit himself at 
that stage. He was conscious that Kitty's expectant 
eyes were upon him, though he avoided meeting them, 
but the risk of her temporary displeasure was prefer- 
able to losing her — as lose her he must, should probate 
be granted to a certain iniquitous document. In 
view of the attitude which might be forced upon him 
by events ere long, he simply could not afford to 
associate himself with Blanche's champions. 

“ Of course," resumed the General impatiently, “ I 
am not speaking of ourselves. What I am thinking 
of is her reputation before the world, and I must say 
she lends a hand to calumny by the extraordinary 
indifference that she chooses to affect." 

“ Oh, that's Blanche," Mrs. Stanfield remarked ; 
“ the harder she's hit the more she doesn't care. 
Goodness knows I hold no brief for Jack Maddison, 
but I can understand her having sometimes enraged 
him." 


230 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


** She doesn't seem to have enraged him on the 
last day of his life," said the General ; "I only wish 
she had ! One may take that extraordinary will of 
his as a proof that Blanche and he had buried their 
differences — there's that point of view. But from 
no earthly point of view can it look like a fair or 
reasonable will." 

At this juncture Sidney prepared to beat a tactful 
retreat. He said that his position had, through no 
fault of his, been rendered a delicate one, and he felt 
that the discussion could be carried on more com- 
fortably without him. The General entered a cour- 
teous protest — " Not at all, my dear man, not at all ! " 
— but Mrs. Stanfield nodded brisk acquiescence and 
Sidney, with a valedictory smile, left the room, Tris- 
tram accompanying him as far as the front door. 

" What," inquired the latter anxiously, " are you 
going to do about this ? " 

Sidney shrugged his shoulders. " About the will ? 
Well, as I told you, I’m afraid I must contest it." 

" On the ground of undue influence ? " 

" I hope not ; but I can't tell yet how I may be 
advised. Personally, I don't think that Jack can 
have been compos mentis when he dashed off a testa- 
ment which beggars me. Of course it's all very 
painful." 

" Very," sighed Tristram. “ I am sorry that the 
subject was alluded to at the inquest." 

"So am I ; but I couldn't help myself. I was 
driven into a corner, and the facts were dragged out 
of me much against my will." 

Not for a moment did Tristram believe that 


A WILL AND A WAY 


231 


Nevertheless, he was constrained to say : “ I don’t 
blame you for attempting to dispute the validity of 
the will ; it is what nine men out of any ten would 
do, I presume. Only the distressing part of it is . 

” Oh, I know,” interrupted Sidney. ” Please don’t 
run away with the idea that I am blind to consequences. 
Naturally, my one wish is to spare her as far as possible, 
but what can I do ? Supposing even that I were to 
abstain from taking proceedings, would she be any 
the less a target for venomous shafts ? ” 

” I suppose not — now that the matter has been 
made public,” Tristram had to reply. 

He returned to the diningroom with the not un- 
expected announcement that Sidney proposed to set 
the law in motion, and all General Stanfield had to 
say was that he trusted such a scandal might be 
averted. It seemed to him to be a case for amicable 
compromise. There was no getting away from the 
fact that Sidney had been badly used — you might 
almost call it defrauded — and Blanche would never 
wish to be a party to rank injustice. 

” A will is a will,” objected Mrs. Stanfield. ” If 
Sidney thinks he can upset this one, let him try. And 
if it comes to injustice, upon my word I don’t know 
that anybody who cut Sidney Maddison off without 
a shilling ought to be condemned as unjust.” 

This was too outrageous a sentiment for Kitty, 
who had had her inward hesitations, but who forth- 
with ranged herself on the side of her betrothed. She 
said he had behaved extremely well under great 
provocation. As for a compromise, which was only 
another way of offering him a bribe, she was sure 


232 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


that he would not accept anything of the kind ; but 
if the law could give him what he considered his due, 
why should he stay his hand ? 

Tristram listened wearily to a long confabulation 
which held no promise of practical help to Blanche. 
These good people did not know very well what 
they wanted and would probably have been at a loss 
even in the presence of a defined object. The General, 
who had begun by valiantly declaring that things must 
be cleared up, now seemed rather desirous of keeping 
them dark. He was afraid of malicious tongues, 
while his wife was chiefly afraid of having to put up 
with an odious son-in-law. Nobody, save Tristram^ 
appeared to be in fear of the police and the Public 
Prosecutor. They were, in short, useless, and Tris- 
tram himself did not see his way to being serviceable 
unless Blanche could be prevailed upon to trust him 
without reserve. A gleam of hope was vouchsafed 
to him through the medium of Anne Pritchard, who 
intercepted him in the hall on his way out with a 
message from her mistress. Would he call the next 
day about noon, when Mrs. Maddison would be alone ? 

She wants to talk to you ; but she can't, poor 
dear, with her father and mother fussing round. You 
don’t think there's going to be any more trouble for 
her, do you, sir ? " 

'' I think we must expect some further trouble," 
Tristram had to reply. " Of course I will be here at 
the hour you name." He could not forbear from 
adding, "You made an awful fool of yourself at the 
inquest, Anne." 

" I did, sir," the old woman penitently acknowledged. 


A WILL AND A WAY 


233 


“ I ought to have stuck to Yes and No and left them 
to their own evil imaginings ; but Hwas too much for 
flesh and blood to stand ! And her more like to have 
killed herself with tending him than to dream of 
putting him away ! — as you know/’ 

Yes, Anne,” Tristram assented, ” you and I know 
her, but the Coroner knew only such facts as had been 
deposed ; so it was his duty to put the questions that 
you objected to.” 

” ’Twas his dooty to have eyes in his head and a 
ha’porth of common sense,” grumbled Anne. If he 
could look at my poor dear and fancy he was looking 
at a murderess, all I can say is he ain’t fit for his 
nasty dooties.” 

Anne, at all events, took her stand upon the ground 
that certain things are in their nature inconceivable — 
which, to be sure, is a solid enough base to plant one’s 
feet upon. ” So that makes four of us, including 
Claude Hadow,” reflected Tristram as he walked away, 
somewhat comforted. 

There was little additional comfort in store for him. 
A very few minutes with Blanche on the ensuing day 
sufficed to exhibit her as firmly impenetrable. She 
told him at once that, so far as she was concerned, the 
mystery which hung over Jack’s last hours must 
remain a mystery. Everything that could possibly 
be said about it had been said over and over again, and 
there was nothing that afforded so much as the shadow 
of a clue. ” We won’t go over that trodden ground 
any more.” She wished, however, to speak to him of 
one determination to which she had come and which 
she did not doubt that he would approve. 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


^34 

I can’t, of course, rob Sidney of his rightful inheri- 
tance. That mad will — what tempted Jack to make 
it I can’t think ! — must be treated as non-existent.” 

Tristram shook his head. ” I don’t think that is 
practicable. The fact of its existence has been made 
public.” 

” Yes, unfortunately. But nothing prevents me 
from tearing it up, I suppose.” 

Tristram was afraid that more considerations than 
one stood in the way. ” I quite understand your 
wish, but I am not sure that you are legally entitled 
to disregard the testator’s known intentions.” 

I don’t believe that those were his sober inten- 
tions, and if they were, I should none the less disregard 
them. Even supposing the estate had to be declared 
mine for form’s sake, I could still hand it over to 
Sidney, couldn’t I ? ” 

Certainly you could — provided that he were 
willing to take it from you as a gift. But I can’t find 
it in my heart to advise your adopting a course so sure 
to be misinterpreted.” 

Oh, there’s no question of advice ; it’s the right 
thing to do and I am going to do it. In what way do 
you mean that it will be misinterpreted ? ” 

His meaning surely should have been obvious enough 
to her ; yet apparently it was not. He was obliged 
to say : ” Don’t you see that the surrender of a large 
fortune would inevitably look like an admission ? ” 

“ An admission of guilt and terrified repentance ? ” 
she returned rather scornfully. “Yes, now that you 
put it so, I daresay it would. What then ? ” 

“ How can you ask such a question ! ” he exclaimed. 


A WILL AND A WAY 235 

Something may be done for Sidney ; I am inclined 
to agree with you that something ought to be done. 
But not in the wholesale way that you propose I You 
are not to risk your good name as well as despoil 
yourself for his sake.'' 

“ I assure you," answered Blanche, " that I don't 
care in the least what may be thought of me. I know 
what is thought already, and I don't wonder. Most 
people would say that I deserve to be hanged. Perhaps 
I do." 

In spite of himself, she made him shiver. He im- 
plored her not to talk like that. If she would not 
listen to him, let her at least consult her lawyers before 
taking a step which could not but tell to her detri- 
ment. A step which might indeed appear to show 
that she had had no hand in the making of Jack's 
second will, yet which might just as well be imputed 
to fear of consequences which she had not foreseen. 
He even went so far as to hint that there was a 
danger — not a serious one, he trusted, still a danger 
— of her having to stand her trial before a judge and 
jury. 

Her reply was that she did not see how any jury 
could find her guilty upon the evidence obtainable. 
*'Not that they would be so very far wrong in con- 
demning me. You yourself know that I wished Jack 
to die." 

In his anguish and uncertainty — for he was more 
than ever persuaded that he had not heard all she 
could have divulged — he broke out into the very 
entreaty which was least likely to move her. " For 
God's sake, Blanche, tell me the whole truth 1 " 


' THE OBSTINATE LADY 


236 

“ I suppose/' she returned coldly, “ you want me to 
swear that I did not kill my husband. Well, if I am 
tried for murder, you will have the same opportunity 
as others of hearing me plead Not Guilty. As between 
ourselves, I have said my last word." 

And to that resolution she adhered. She was not 
in the least hurt or offended, she declared ; only she 
had nothing more to say. In her decision with regard 
to Sidney she was steadfast. She was sorry that 
Tristram did not see eye to eye with her ; but that 
could not be helped. He went away, knowing full 
well that she was both hurt and offended, yet power- 
less to bridge the gulf which had opened between them. 

Sidney, in the meantime, did not disguise from 
himself that he was by no means standing upon velvet. 
He thought, without being sure, that his brother’s 
will could be set aside ; he would have to take a 
lawyer’s opinion as to that. He did not think it 
likely that Blanche had dictated or had cognisance 
of the document, though it seemed highly probable 
that she had poisoned her husband. Upon what 
plea, then, was he to attack the will ? Undue influ- 
ence, he supposed, for the insanity of the testator would 
have a poor chance of being established. Undue influ- 
ence — coupled, as it inevitably would be, with sugges- 
tions of an ensuing criminal charge. He hesitated ; 
because it seemed certain that, in the event of legal 
proceedings being taken, he might bid farewell to all 
hope of ever calling Kitty his own. Even upon the 
assumption that she loved him, it would be difficult 
for her to marry a man who, by implication if not by 
direct assertion, was accusing her sister of murder. 


A WILL AND A WAY 


237 


And she did not love him ; she loved that pitiful, 
pretty-faced poetaster ! It was never Sidney's way 
to shirk unpleasant facts. He saw as clearly as could 
be that he would have to choose between bidding for 
a fortune and relying, in magnanimous self-effacement, 
upon the loyalty of a girl who might, after all, throw 
him over, leaving him both jilted and poverty-stricken. 
No wonder he ground his strong teeth and heartily 
cursed various persons — his dead brother, his blunder- 
ing idiot of a sister-in-law, who had imagined that 
she could humbug the doctor, Tristram Rolfe, who had 
so officiously picked up a superfluous sheet of paper, 
and most of all Claude Hadow. 

To be brought face to face with the latter delinquent 
in Pall Mall would have been enough to ruffle the 
composure of most mortals ; but Sidney was quite 
civil when stopped by the young fellow, who breath- 
lessly announced that he had just had an unexpected 
stroke of good luck. The Medical Board, it appeared, 
thought decidedly better of him and had held out a 
prospect of his soon being passed as fit for service. 
Claude was so taken up with these glad tidings that 
he had but a few words to say about matters of greater 
consequence — ^perfunctory regrets, hopes that Mrs. 
Maddison had not been upset by that beastly inquest, 
and so forth. He either did not know or chose to 
ignore that he was speaking to an ostensibly ruined 
man. He had the impudence or the fatuity to allude 
to his volume of poems, now on the eve of publication, 
(Oh, damn him and his puerile verses !) and to add 
laughingly, Put in a good word for me if they send 
you the book to review/' 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


238 

Nothing would have given Sidney more intense 
satisfaction than to send his fist crashing straight from 
the shoulder into that smiling, boyish face; but an 
over-civilised world is no place for such pristine 
demonstrations, and he pursued his way towards White- 
hall with concentrated rage in his heart. Of course 
the young wretch was bluffing ; he had no stomach for 
fight and would get himself exempted again. It was 
to be foreseen, however, that he would take his 
boastful tale to Kitty, who would believe in it and 
in him. 

Impressed as he was with the prudence of holding 
himself temporarily in the background, Sidney did 
not welcome a written request from Blanche on the 
morrow that he would be so kind as to accord her an 
interview ; still, since he could not very well refuse, 
he presented himself in Eaton Square and was straight- 
way informed of his sister-in-law's surprising decision. 
Naturally he protested that, while he appreciated her 
quixotic generosity, it was out of the question for him 
to take advantage of it ; but she rejoined at once that 
she was not making him an offer, open to acceptance 
or rejection ; she was merely telling him what it was 
right that he should know. 

“ I have quite made up my mind that if Jack's 
incomprehensible will cannot be destroyed — ^which 
would be much the best plan — I shall make over the 
estate to you. I have been warned that this will 
be construed as proving that I am afraid of the 
consequences of a lawsuit ; but in reality I am 
afraid of nothing except profiting by an act of utter 
injustice." 


A WILL AND A WAY 


239 


I think,” said Sidney slowly, ” I had better be 
perfectly frank with you. It is my intention to dis- 
pute the will ; for I cannot believe that my brother 
seriously meant to disinherit me. I feel that I am 
bound to contest the validity of the instrument, pain- 
ful as that must necessarily be to me, as well as to 
you” .... 

Spare us both, then,” interrupted Blanche. ” The 
will is already invalid, since I am determined to treat 
it as being so. There is nothing to go to law about.” 

Now whether this was an offer or an entreaty or a 
mere statement mattered little to Sidney. He was 
safe. Kitty could not and would not condemn him 
for taking what was thrust upon him by her sister’s 
voluntary surrender. He was careful, however, to 
dissemble his joy ; gratitude required no repression 
inasmuch as he experienced none. The woman, what- 
ever she might choose to affirm, was evidently afraid 
for her neck — which, to be sure, might yet be in 
jeopardy. It was perhaps worth her while, it certainly 
was worth his, that the arrangement which she pro- 
posed should go through. 

” It seems to me,” said he, with an air of grave 
deliberation, ” that I ought not to attempt to influence 
you in one direction or the other. Situated as I am, 
I am not the proper person to do that. I am sure 
you have disinterested advisers by whom you would 
do well to be guided. All I can say is that I am most 
anxious to avoid harassing you in any way.” 

” Thank you,” answered Blanche ; ” that is quite 
enough.” 

Enough, anyhow, had been said to convince him of 


240 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


her culpability. She was a fool, no doubt, to let 
judgment go against her by default, and Tristram 
Rolfe, whom she had probably consulted, was an- 
other ; but it is not the part of a wise man to depre- 
cate folly whereby he comes into his own. 


CHAPTER XX 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 

In Kitty Stanfield’s composition there was a streak 
of the perversity and obstinacy which were more 
noticeable in her sister’s. Having promised to marry 
a man whom she did not love, she would have thought 
more badly of herself than she cared to think had she 
gone back upon her promise without very good and 
sufficient cause. As, however, she was in the main 
an honest and sensible young woman, she no longer 
attempted to shut her eyes to the truth, which was 
that she would have been immeasurably thankful to 
be furnished with good and sufficient cause. None 
existed ; for his impoverishment, which presented 
itself to her mother as comfortably conclusive, was for 
her an added^^claim upon fidelity. For a moment, 
when it had seemed that he might associate himself 
with Blanche’s tacit accusers, she had been near pro- 
claiming that she had done with him ; but he had 
studiously refrained from committing that unpardon- 
able offence, and his determination to fight for his 
rightful inheritance could not in fairness be accounted 
any offence at all. The one thing which, for all her 
honesty and good sense, she never brought herself to 
admit was that poor Claude Hadow’s despairing 
i6 


242 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


avowal was in the least concerned with her distress of 
mind. She was sorry for Claude and sorry that she 
had been the means of driving him away from Marling ; 
but — he had been such a dreadful disappointment ! 
The most that she could accomplish with satisfaction 
to herself was to think as little as possible about 
him. 

Her parents seemed to be of opinion that a similar 
course was the wisest to adopt with regard to Sidney 
Maddison. At any rate, they did not mention his 
name, nor was any communication received from him 
during the days that followed their return home. 
Kitty understood their reticence and appreciated his, 
which was doubtless dictated by the circumstances of 
a difficult situation. Perhaps he was waiting for her 
to make the first move, and perhaps she would do so 
before long. Meanwhile, it remained to be seen what 
action, if any, would be taken by Blanche, who, despite 
affectionate entreaties, had declined to leave Eaton 
Square. A letter from Blanche to her father disposed 
of the question after a fashion which caused the 
General to exclaim aloud at the breakfast-table : 

Oh, this will never do ! This really can’t be 
thought of, you know ! ” 

Mrs. Stanfield, on being enlightened, declared her- 
self in emphatic agreement with the speaker. What 
next, I wonder ! To begin with, it’s illegal.” 

To destroy a will is illegal,” said the General, 
scratching his ear ; ” to hand over all you possess to 
your neighbour isn’t. If you call it immoral and 
insane, I’m with you ; but if you ask me how the 
deuce we’re to stop Blanche from making an immoral 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 243 

lunatic of herself, I don't know that I’ve any reply 
ready on the spur of the moment." 

Kitty did not see that there was much to be excited 
or alarmed about. " Of course Sidney won't accept.'" 

" But I gather that he has accepted," objected her 
father. 

Kitty took the letter out of his hand and read it. 

Blanche doesn’t say so," she observed. " After all, 
I don’t wonder at her wanting to do what she naturally 
thinks is right ; only " . . . . 

“ Only she can’t strip herself bare like that," inter- 
rupted Mrs. Stanfield, " without implying — ^well, any- 
body but Blanche would see what it must imply. I 
shall have to go up to London and smack her." 

The General thought that it would be better for him 
to go up to London and reason with her, although he 
well knew how little his reasoning powers had ever 
achieved when confronted with his elder daughter’s 
obduracy. 

" The point is," said he, " that, as things have turned 
out, it’s indispensable for Jack’s last will to be proved. 
Otherwise it will be said that she didn’t dare to ptove 
it. Once that is done, I see no reason why she shouldn ’ t 
give effect to the more formal will, if she likes, and 
take her five thousand a year. But I really must 
make her understand that she can’t afford to have the 
appearance of showing the white feather." 

Finally, however, he was not unwilling to delegate 
the mission to his younger daughter, who indeed 
decisively stated her intention of undertaking it. She 
said, truly enough, that if anybody could manage 
Blanche, she could. Besides, the scheme would not 


244 the obstinate LADY 

come off ; for it was certain that Sidney would be no 
party to it. 

Blanche, prepared by telegram for her sister’s de- 
scent upon her and likewise prepared for the family 
expostulations, was placidly unshakable. Did Kitty 
or any of them imagine, she asked, that she had not 
counted the cost of what she was about to do ? Very 
likely there would be some unpleasant results, though 
not nearly so unpleasant to her as retaining a fortune 
to which she had no sort of right, except a legal one — 
if indeed she had that. 

Father thinks you owe it to yourself to establish 
your legal rights,” said Kitty, ” and I quite agree with 
him.” 

” I wonder whether either of you really thinks so. 
What you think is that I am in a way passing sentence 
upon myself ; but I don’t admit that. Also, to tell 
the truth, I don’t care if I am. A wrong has to be 
righted, before or after a lawsuit. I prefer to dispense 
with the lawsuit.” 

” Suppose Sidney won’t let you ? ” 

” How can he forbid me ? He has been perfectly 
reasonable and considerate. He said — ^very properly, 
I thought — ^that it was not for him to offer me advice ; 
but he undertook not to oppose me.” 

” I shall believe that when I hear it from him. It 
seems to me that he is just as much obliged to oppose 
Jack’s will as you are to uphold it. He can’t agree to 
be bought off.” 

” There is no question of buying him off. The estate 
is his, and he will have to take it, whether the law 
pronounpes for or against him. Surely you, of all 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 245 

people, must wish him to come into his own ! Doesn’t 
your future hang upon that ? ” 

Blanche, is it possible that you propose to beggar 
yourself in order to befriend me ! ” 

Oh, no ; for me that is merely incidental. My 
duty would be the same if you had never been born. 
Still I do wish you to be happy. Kitty, do you want 
to marry Sidney or don’t you ? ” 

“ What a ridiculous question ! ” 

'' Not so ridiculous. If you love the man, there’s 
no more to be said ; but I can’t help having doubts, 
and I have no doubt at all that, unless you love him, 
you would be mad to stick to a promise which ought 
not to have been made. Kitty dear, you know what 
a wretched fiasco my life has been, but perhaps you 
don’t know that I brought it all upon myself. I never 
cared for Jack ; I don’t think I ever even liked him. 
He was what he was ; but if he had been different, I 
shouldn’t have been much less miserable. Don’t 
believe that any woman can live happily with a man 
whom she doesn’t love ; it isn’t true. It may require 
a little courage to confess that one has made a mistake ; 
but to persist in a deception for the sake of appearing 
consistent is sheer cowardice.” 

Kitty, thus suddenly shifted from the offensive to 
the defensive, had recourse to the traditional tactic of 
declining battle. She observed rather disingenuously 
that the fact of her having accepted Sidney Maddison, 
in the teeth of pretty strenuous opposition, ought to 
speak for itself ; she hoped her sister did not think 
that his wealth or poverty could have anything to 
say to the matter, and she pointed out that they were 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


246 

wandering from the subject under discussion. But 
Blanche was not to be denied. 

“ I want a plain answer to a plain question,” she 
declared. 

'' Anybody,” returned Kitty, ” can ask a question 
which sounds plain when it is really complicated. I 
can’t explain the feeling that I have for Sidney to you, 
because you aren’t enough in sympathy with either 
of us to understand. He isn’t at all what you and 
most other people think him. You assume, for in- 
stance, that he is willing to accept your entire fortune 
as a gift and you call conduct which you would despise 
in anybody else ‘ perfectly reasonable and considerate ' 
on his part. That of itself shows how incapable you 
are of doing him justice.” 

” I neither praise nor blame him. I have told you 
already that he has no choice in the business.” 

Very well. Then you shall see that he can and 
will choose.” 

The thing that Kitty could not but see was her 
sister’s inexplicable — or was it distressingly explicable ? 
— ^reluctance to appear in a Court of Law. But it would 
be for Sidney to say whether the law was to be in- 
voked or not. Having arranged to stay the night 
in Eaton Square, she straightway despatched a note 
to him, requesting him to meet her there the next 
morning, and when he made his appearance in com- 
pliance with a behest of which he did not fail to 
guess the purpose, the first thing that she said to 
him was : 

” Blanche has been trying to make me believe that 
you and she have agreed to set Jack’s will aside with- 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 247 

out going to law. I needn’t tell you that I don’t 
believe a word of it.” 

” I am sure you don’t,” was Sidney’s prompt reply. 
” I could not have entered into any agreement of the. 
kind, nor have I. At the same time, to you I will 
say frankly that I wish your sister could be spared 
the — ^the ordeal of a lawsuit.” 

” That seems to me impossible. You are entitled 
to dispute the will and I daresay you ought to dispute 
it ; but no honourable man could take what isn’t his 
as the price of suppressing a scandal.” 

” Quite so. You have stated my dilemma.” 

” You will go to law, then ? ” 

” If I must. But, Kitty, do you realise what going 
to law may mean for your sister ? ” 

Yes, and it is the lesser evil. Nobody knows, or 
is ever likely to know, who brought about Jack’s 
death, and whether she wins or loses this suit, some 
people will always believe that she did. There is no 
help for that ; only of course if she seems to give in in 
order to stifle inquiry, the case against her will look 
worse than it does.” 

” Do you think so ? You may be right ; but I 
should be inclined to say that it might remain an open 
question.” 

” I hope you don’t mean that her having killed 
Jack strikes you as an open question. Because, if it 
does I ” ... 

Here was Sidney’s real dilemma. He was sure that 
Blanche had killed his brother ; but he would at once 
have asserted his complete faith in her if he had not 
seen that by so doing he would throw away a possibly 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


248 

valuable trump card. On the other hand, if he hinted 
that he had doubts — goodbye to Kitty ! He executed 
a flank movement by saying : 

I detest the idea of taking proceedings. Invalid 
as I believe that will to be, and unjust as it certainly 
is, I would submit to it and say no more, supposing 
monetary disaster were all I had at stake. But, Kitty, 
you know how much more is involved. You know 
that we should never be allowed to marry upon my 
miserable income.” (When all was said and done, he 
was sure of the estate, since Blanche was bent upon 
transferring it to him.) 

I promised to marry you when we both thought 
that you were poor and I will keep my promise,” 
answered Kitty firmly. '' The only two things that 
could make me hesitate would be your consenting to 
a bargain or your supposing for a moment that Blanche 
isn’t absolutely innocent.” 

How clear it was that she would gladly have seized 
an excuse to release herself from her promise ! True, 
he had known that beforehand ; yet her words cut 
him to the heart. He sighed and murmured, You 
are very good to me — wonderfully good ! ” 

He contrived, ingeniously enough, to evade the 
point of his personal assurance that Blanche was im- 
maculate ; his connivance in a bargain was easily 
repudiated. The upshot of it was a drawn battle. 
Kitty could tell Blanche that Sidney disclaimed all 
participation in her design, while Sidney was able to 
flatter himself that he had wriggled out of a tight 
corner without loss. Naturally, as is always the case 
after an inconclusive encounter, neither party was 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 249 

quite satisfied and both knew that a decision had yet 
to be reached. 

Another deeply dissatisfied person was in hopes of 
hearing that a decision which he had failed to modify 
had been abandoned under parental and other pres- 
sure. It was inconceivable, Tristram thought, that 
either Blanche’s relations or her lawyers would suffer 
her to commit moral suicide. But the days passed 
without bringing him any tidings of comfort, and he 
was anxious also on behalf of Claude Hadow, whose 
prospects, momentarily brightened in some degree by 
Sidney’s presumed eclipse, would, it was to be feared, 
be blighted should Blanche carry out her insensate 
project. 

Claude, for that matter, was less dispirited than his 
host, being persuaded that he had no prospects at 
all beyond such as now began to hold out hopes of 
realisation. The Medical Board had at last pro- 
nounced him convalescent ; furthermore his volume 
had appeared and had been noticed with a few lines 
of patronising commendation in various organs of the 
Press, one kindly critic going so far as to say that, 

Mr. Hadow, in spite of a juvenile propensity to kick 
over the traces which he will doubtless learn to curb, 
has in him the ingredients of a poet. He possesses 
originality and imagination, together with an occa- 
sional striking beauty of’ diction. He is sometimes a 
trifle crude and often more than a trifle obscure ; but 
his work is of a kind to stimulate interest and expec- 
tation.” So that was sufficient for the encourage- 
ment of a diffident beginner. 

Diffidence is not, perhaps, the most prominent attri- 


250 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


bute of the poetic temperament ; but Claude, unfortu- 
nately, was not blessed with that belief in himself 
which is requisite for the acceptance of censure with 
an equal mind. One morning he handed Tristram a 
copy of a weekly journal somewhat distinguished in 
an uncritical epoch for the vigour of its literary criti- 
cisms and, pointing to an article headed Hysterical 
Doggerel, remarked dolorously : 

This knocks me out. Vicious, but smart and, I 
daresay, just. One only wonders that the writer 
should have thought it worth while to devote so much 
energy to the smashing of a cipher.” 

The writer had indeed grudged neither energy nor 
sarcasm, and the worst of it was that he had a very 
vulnerable victim. Poor Claude’s poems, which he 
tore to pieces, contained plenty of technical defects, 
and these were indicated without mercy. Still there 
are few poets, great or small, who have not sometimes 
broken the rules : one may be shown to have violated 
the axioms of one’s art and yet make shift to hold 
up a battered head again. What is not so easy to 
survive is a scathing exposure of alleged ” childish 
ineptitude, vacuity and conceit.” Of late, the article 
declared, there had really been too much of this sort 
of thing. It was no pleasure to strip humbug of its 
pretentious garb ; but readers who would not be at 
the pains of analysing what they read had fallen into 
the facile habit of mistaking what they found unintelli- 
gible for profundity. It was time that somebody 
undertook the disagreeable task of analysis, and the 
writer addressed himself to it with a will. What he 
had to say did not happen to be either fair or true ; 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 251 

only he said it so cleverly and amusingly that he did 
seem to leave the subject of his assault convicted of 
having penned a good deal of sheer nonsense. 

Tristram was white with anger when he laid the 
paper down. He himself was tolerant of criticism 
and about as indifferent to it as a sensitive author can 
be ; but this savage attack upon his protege enraged 
him all the more because he knew that an enemy had 
struck the blow and because the enemy’s identity 
was revealed in every line. Nobody but Sidney 
Maddison could have written that article, nor would 
anybody but Sidney have stooped to so ignoble a 
mode of revenge. For a mode of taking vengeance it 
unquestionably was ; and that, so far as it went, had 
its consolatory side, inasmuch as it seemed to prove 
that Sidney imagined he had reason to be jealous. It 
did not, indeed, take Tristram, who thought with greater 
rapidity than he spoke or wrote, two minutes to per- 
ceive that Sidney had been betrayed by spite into 
doing an uncommonly foolish thing. What he had 
designed to do was pretty clear. Not content with 
having led Kitty to believe the young poet a coward, 
he now wished to exhibit him to her as a fool, for- 
getting in his haste that the effect aimed at depended 
entirely upon the preservation of his own anonymity. 
Once let Kitty recognise him for the mean traitor that 
he was and his chance of ever being forgiven by her 
would not be worth much. Now Sidney’s style was 
so characteristic that even the unsuspicious Claude 
might have been expected to guess who his chastiser 
was ; but, as he apparently did not, it seemed best 
to abstain, for the time being, from enlightening him 


252 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


After all, he was not the person whom it was of most 
consequence to enlighten. 

Tristram accordingly only observed that an article 
of such exaggerated virulence defeated its own osten- 
sible aim and might be accounted negligible. He 
instanced Keats and many others as having triumphed 
over the stupidity of their detractors and then, having 
nothing more to say, went out. 

He had nothing more to say, but he had something 
to do, and a taxi took him straightway to the office of 
the peccant Review, upon the editor of which he had 
a good pretext for calling, as he was himself an occa- 
sional contributor to its pages. He wanted to know, 
or said he did, whether room could be found for a 
short essay that he had written upon recent develop- 
ments in French literature, and the editor, a genial 
spectacled personage who had a high appreciation of 
Mr. Rolfe’s work, replied without demur that space 
should be forthcoming. An amicable colloquy ensued, 
and it was not until Tristram had risen to take his 
leave that he remarked : 

By the way, I don’t think you ought to have let 
Sidney Maddison go for my young friend Hadow 
with such old-fashioned ferocity. That sort of 
bludgeoning is rather out of date. And incidentally, 
you know, Hadow’s poems are quite good. Some of 
them are very good indeed.” 

The editor shrugged his shoulders. ” I must con- 
fess that I am disposed to agree with you,” he answered. 
” I had the curiosity to glance at your friend’s pro- 
ductions, and I certainly thought them superior to the 
average stuff that claims to be poetry in these barren 


QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS 253 

days. All the same, I won’t say that Maddison’s 
lash was uncalled for, though it may not have fallen 
upon the back of the worst offender. And you’ll 
admit that it was a devilish clever article.” 

Tristram admitted that it was both clever and 
devilish, thinking to himself, And now you, on your 
side, have made the admission which I came here to 
get out of you.” 

It would not have done to ask point-blank whether 
Sidney was or was not the writer of the article. The 
editor would not improbably have smelt a rat and 
could with perfect propriety have declined to give 
the requested information. He had, however, fallen 
into the little trap prepared for him, and, armed with 
this irrefutable testimony, Tristram was in a position 
to afford Miss Kitty some insight into the character 
of the man whom she had pledged herself to marry. 


CHAPTER XXI 


A HIT AND A MISS 

Tristram was so free of the house at Marling that he 
could invite himself thither whenever he liked, with or 
without the preliminary ceremony of a despatched 
post-card ; but it happened that he found, on his 
return to Chelsea, a note from Mrs. Stanfield in which 
he was implored to spare a few hours of his time to 
harassed and perplexed friends. 

We don’t know what to be at,” she wrote. Kitty 
comes back from London to tell us that she can do 
nothing with Blanche, who sticks to it that Sidney 
is to have his brother’s money, whether he will or 
no, and it’s easy to see what Sidney’s line of action 
will be. He will be very sorry to be enriched in 
that way, but he won’t be able to help himself. In 
other words, he’ll help himself with both hands, and 
then he’ll ask for more. Quite likely to get it too ; 
for, although Kitty doesn’t a bit want to marry 
the man, she maintains that his conduct has been 
perfectly correct and seems to imply that hers will 
have to follow suit. Was ever a woman plagued 
with two such wrong-headed daughters I So do come 
down and let us have the benefit of your common 
sense. Because really you are the only person, barring 


A HIT AND A MISS 


255 

myself and that rascally Sidney, who appears to have 
any left.” 

Tristram smiled while he read this piteous appeal 
for succour, but sighed when he reflected that if he 
could respond to it by serving one of Mrs. Stanfield's 
daughters, he was powerless to effect as much for the 
other. Useful as common sense may be within the 
limits of its possible exercise, it is not a remedy suscep- 
tible of being communicated to those who reject it. 
However, one must do the best one can with such 
measure of it as falls to one’s share, and he did not 
think that he would display any at that stage by un- 
masking Sidney to Claude Hadow, whom he merely 
informed that he was going to Marling for a night to 
“talk things over.” 

“I wonder,” murmured the dejected youth, whether 
they will have seen that pulverising article about me. 
If they have, tell them — ^won’t you ? — that I don't 
much mind. As a bardlet I'm ignominiously extinct ; 
but, given a little luck, I may yet achieve a respect- 
able sort of a final flare-up as an extinguished 
soldier.” 

“ I’ll tell them what you say, if they ask me,” 
Tristram gravely promised ; and indeed he foresaw 
that the message, as it stood, might be delivered with 
some effect in one quarter. 

But it was not to Kitty that he first addressed him- 
self on reaching his destination. Kitty was not yet 
back from the hospital, nor, had she been present, 
would the occasion have been suitable for an announce- 
ment which he held in reserve. General and Mrs. 
Stanfield described themselves as at their wits' end ; 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


256 

the former disposed towards compromise, the latter 
more bellicose, but both agreed that to let matters 
take their course would spell sheer disaster. 

'' You see, Rolfe,” the General said, Blanche can’t 
be allowed to throw up the sponge, so to speak. It 
would be like owning that she doesn’t wish the cir- 
cumstances of her husband’s death to be investigated 
any farther.” 

Tristram certainly saw that : what he did not see 
was how Blanche was to be restrained from courting 
disaster. He said he had done his best to make it 
clear to her that voluntary surrender was the very 
thing to provoke farther investigation ; but unfor- 
tunately she did not flinch from that prospect. ” Her 
position, I take it, is that, having nothing to hide, 
she has nothing to fear.” 

The General groaned. ” What desperate nonsense ! 
Perhaps she needn’t fear being found guilty of murder, 
if that’s what she means ; but there’s real reason to 
fear that she may be charged with it, and that’s what 
we must absolutely avert. I call it a case for private 
arrangement. Let the will be admitted to probate, 
and then let it be understood that the parties have 
come to terms — upon the basis, say, of the previous 
will.” 

” I think that would be throwing up the sponge,” 
said Mrs. Stanfield. ” I’m for fighting, even if it does 
entail the risk of a black eye. She’ll come out of it 
all right. The will stands, Sidney is knocked out, 
and any provision that Blanche may think proper to 
make for him he’ll have to take as a free gift from her, 
not as payment of bjackmail, Also we emancipate 


A HIT AND A MISS 


257 

Kitty, because he’ll take anything he can get fast 
enough and she’s very strong upon the point that he 
can’t accept charity.” 

Tristram was not much concerned about Kitty, 
whom he hoped to emancipate after a different fashion ; 
but he was deeply concerned for Blanche and very 
desirous to preserve her from the scrutiny of cross- 
examination. He would not have dreaded this for 
her had he felt sure that she would tell the whole 
truth ; it was because he felt sure that she would not 
that he had to prefer the General’s plan to Mrs. Stan- 
field’s. He pointed out, however, that that plan could 
only work with Sidney’s assent, and, after much 
debate, it was agreed that he should talk to Sidney, 
as well as to Blanche once more, representpg to the 
latter that she owed some consideration to her dis- 
tressed father and mother, if not to herself. 

His next task was simpler and more promising. He 
had only to lie in wait for Kitty at the usual hour of 
her return from the hospital and impart to her a 
piece of intelligence which could scarcely fail to produce 
salutary results. He stationed himself at the garden 
gate, and when her blue-and- white figure came within 
the range of his vision, he noticed that it moved with 
less than its wonted elasticity. Also it was a troubled 
countenance that she turned towards him as she said : 

“ I’m glad you have come. You have always the 
effect of a friend in need, you know, though I’m 
afraid you haven’t much beyond sympathy to bestow 
upon us this time.” 

“ It’s a question,” answered Tristram, whether I 
have even that at your individual service. Your 

17 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


258 

sympathies seem to be enlisted where mine are in- 
capable of bearing them company.*' 

The girl's face hardened. Please don't ! " she 
exclaimed. “ How can you suppose that you are likely 
to set me against him at a time when I am more than 
ever bound to stand up for him ? I know you don't 
like him ; but for that very reason you ought to try 
to be just to him." 

"Well, I’ll try," Tristram promised, "and I think 
I may succeed ; though justice is a rather hard thing 
to come by in this fallen world. Who can expect to 
get it ? Not our poor Claude Hadow, for one. I 
have in my pocket what he calls his extinction as 
a poet and what I must allow has all the appearance 
of an extinguisher, notwithstanding its flagrant in- 
justice." 

" Oh, I'm sorry ! " cried Kitty, though perhaps she 
was not very sorry to drop a contentious topic. " Has 
some stupid newspaper been saying unkind things 
about his poetry ? " 

Tristram held out the paper to her. “ Here is what 
a journal that isn’t generally considered stupid has 
to say,” he answered. “ You’ll probably agree that 
it’s rather unkind.” 

The colour shot into Kitty’s cheeks as her eye fell 
upon the opening paragraph. Then, after reading 
the whole article through without comment, she flung 
the paper down and stamped upon it, exclaiming, 
" Infamous I Cruel and mean and utterly false as 
well. Oh, poor boy 1 Is he dreadfully cut up ? ” 

" Why, no,” replied Tristram, “ he isn’t. He looks 
upon this as snufling him out — possibly it does — but he 


A HIT AND A MISS 


259 


has too much pluck to squeal. Moreover, he now sees 
a fair chance of his being allowed to go back to the 
fighting line ; so that’s a little compensation for a 
young fellow who has more pluck than some folks 
suppose.” 

Kitty’s cheeks grew pink again and her eyes sparkled. 
But she made a gesture s5mibolic of heaping dust upon 
her head. ” That’s right,” said she meekly ; ” hit 
me hard, I deserve it. I acknowledge the whole of 
what you don’t say, and I’m ashamed of myself. I 
ought to have known him better.” 

" I think you ought,” said Tristram. 

“Yes, but he did take some pains to mislead 
me.” 

“ Ably seconded by a misleading writer whom you 
ought to recognise, but apparently don’t, as lying in 
effigy beneath your indignant heel.” 

At this Kitty’s colour faded away. “ Oh, you don’t 
mean .... you can't mean to tell me ” . . . . 

“ That Sidney Maddison wrote that amiable piece 
of criticism ? Nothing in the world was more un- 
questionable to me the moment that I set eyes upon 
it ; but, to make assurance doubly sure, I took steps 
to establish the fact.” 

There are things (as Tristram had cause to know) 
which remain incredible in the face of established 
facts, and some of the sympathy which he had begun 
by refusing to his companion could be felt for her when 
she declared that upon no testimony save Sidney’s 
own would she believe him guilty of the baseness 
imputed to him. “You must be mistaken. He has 
always been most kind and friendly to Claude. Why 


26 o 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


should he wish to hurt him ? — and in such a nasty, 
underhand way ! 

“ Ah, there you get beyond me,'' Tristram replied- 

I can only undertake to exhibit Sidney Maddison, 
not to explain him. I own that his having had re- 
course to an attack which was practically certain to 
be traced to him beats me. All one can say is that 
the cleverest men make the strangest blunders at 
times.’* 

Kitty stooped and picked up the paper which was 
still lying on the grass where she had thrown it. 

May I keep this ? ” she asked. 

“ By all means. And now, favour for favour, 
may I take any message to Claude Hadow from 
you ? ” 

Yes, tell him .... No, don’t tell him anything, 
except that I should like to see him before he leaves. 
It would be no more than civil of him to come and 
say goodbye to us, would it ? ” 

** Well, he hasn’t got marching orders yet ; he has 
been permitted to hope, that’s all. Still I daresay he 
would pay you a visit, farewell or other, if he were 
invited.” 

Kitty answered without demur that a formal in- 
vitation should be sent. She said quite frankly that 
she wanted to beg the young man’s pardon, and 
Tristram was too wary to press his advantage farther. 
Sidney Maddison, it was clear, would either have to 
tell a lie — which would avail him nothing — or take 
the consequence's of ill-advised perfidy. As for Claude 
Hadow’s fate, it lay upon the knees of the Gods, and 
the less a mere mortal attempted to meddle with it 


A HIT AND A MISS 


261 


the better would be its chance of shaping favourably. 
Mortal meddling, at any rate, had achieved as much 
as it had set out to do ; which was some solace to one 
upon whom his own fate, contrary to his natural in- 
chnation, seemed to fix somewhat persistently the 
part of an intermeddler. 

By no such ungracious appellation did Claude 
Hadow hail him when he returned to Chelsea to give 
an account of his proceedings. Claude was full of 
joy and gratitude, unspeakably thankful to the friend 
who had rehabilitated his character for him, astonish- 
ingly unmoved by the revelation which that friend 
judged that the time had now come for him to make. 
Just at first he was a little startled and shocked, 
murmuring that it was not quite playing the game ; 
but he corrected himself in the same breath. 

** After all, though, I don't know. A critic has to 
do his duty and say what he thinks, even if it comes 
in the way of his duty to knock a pal on the head 
He wouldn't be honest if he didn't." 

" Quite so," agreed Tristram, " and when he goes 
out of his way to say what he doesn't think in order 
to knock a so-called pal on the head, he is — Sidney 
Maddison. Nevertheless, I make you welcome to 
forgive him, if you like. Personally, I don't propose 
to forgive him, nor, if I know anything about her, 
will Kitty Stanfield." 

Claude smiled and shook his head. " Dear old 
man," said he, "I know what is in your kind heart, 
but you're mistaken. Perhaps she'll be a bit angry 
with Maddison because — well, because she's generous 
and because she herself wouldn't do the sort of thing 


262 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


that he has done. Honestly, though, I shouldn't like 
her to quarrel with him on my account. I suppose 
she's fond of him ; I know she isn't fond of me — not 
in the way that you want to think possible. I’m more 
than satisfied with what you have done for me. She 
wishes to see me and you have persuaded her that I 
am neither a shirker nor a funk. Which is the utmost 
that could have been done. Now let me tell you 
something that I've been bursting with all this time 
and that throws everything else into the shade. I’m 
certified fit at last and, praise Heaven ! I’m off to 
France in ten days.” 

Tristram had had his experience of trench warfare 
and, although he was not greatly enamoured of life, 
had no desire to renew it. Still less could he wish a 
young fellow who had become dear to him to be flung 
back into that uninspiring welter of hardship, slaughter 
and monotony from which infantry officers had to be 
accounted fortunate if they emerged with a whole 
skin and perhaps a scrap of ribbon. Nevertheless, he 
gave voice to the congratulations expected of him 
and abstained from rebuking a faint-heartedness which 
Kitty, he conjectured, would be better qualified to 
dispel than he. Faint hearts, notwithstanding the 
proverb, are not always despised by fair ladies, who 
know well enough how to distinguish between pusil- 
lanimity and a becoming, if slightly exaggerated, sense 
of unworthiness to win their favour. 

On the following day — Claude having duly received 
his invitation and having hastened away to Marling 
—Tristram bent his steps towards Whitehall, instead 
of towards Eaton Square, Ho did not fancy the 


A HIT AND A MISS 


263 

errand upon which he was bound, but felt committed 
to it both by his promise to the Stanfields and by 
considerations of expediency. He saw, or thought he 
saw, that what he had to do — the only serviceable 
thing he could do — was to preserve Blanche from 
inculpating herself in the witness box, and it was 
not from Blanche that he could hope to obtain 
what he desired. So as soon as he had overcome a 
strong disinclination to shake Sidney Maddison by 
the hand, he stated the object of his visit without 
preface. 

“ I am told that you intend to dispute your brother’s 
will, and I have come to dissuade you, if I can, from 
doing so.” 

This was a surprise and something of a relief to 
Sidney, who had at once guessed that his visitor was 
actuated by a different purpose. Sidney, already 
half-repentant of having yielded to a savage impulse, 
was well aware that his manner of writing must have 
betrayed him to Tristram Rolfe, and his ingenuity pro- 
vided him with no ready or plausible defence of him- 
self. As, however, Tristram had decided not to com- 
plicate matters by alluding to the malicious review, 
he had nothing to fear on that score, and his answer 
to the announcement made was both prompt and 
conciliatory in tone. 

” My dear fellow, if there is anything that I can do 
or leave undone to meet you and my sister-in-law, 
pray dispose of me. My difficulty, as I presume you 
know, is that she proposes to give me what I must 
call my rights without litigation. What am I to do ? 
I am most unwilling to annoy or distress her ; yet I 


264 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

am not prepared to say that I can accept that will as 
valid.” 

” I think,” said Tristram, ” you will find that it is. 
In order to get it set aside you would have to allege 
either undue influence or mental incapacity of the 
testator. Now, if it comes to a question of your 
brother's sanity, I, who saw him immediately before 
he drew up the document, can testify that he was in 
full possession of his faculties at the time, and it 
would be difficult to make out that the beneficiary, 
who doesn’t disguise her opinion that the will is unfair 
or her intention to disregard it, was in any way privy 
to its existence.” 

Sidney pinched his lower lip between his finger and 
thumb and looked pensively regretful. “ I am afraid,” 
said he, ” that — having regard to all the circumstances 
— a lawyer might not consider my sister-in-law’s pre- 
sent readiness to disregard the will incompatible with 
previous influence.” 

” Oh, very well,” returned Tristram, longing to kick 
the man ; ” say that there was influence. As a matter 
of fact, I think there may have been, and I ought to 
know, because, if anybody influenced Jack, I believe 
I did.” 

Sidney raised his eyebrows and stared. ” You ! ” 

” Yes ; he was speaking of your engagement, which 
surprised him by its apparent imprudence, and I 
remarked that you probably felt assured of soon 
succeeding to his estate.” 

” Upon my word, I am much obliged to you for the 
suggestion ! ” 

” So, perhaps, was he ; but he certainly was 


A HIT AND A MISS 


265 

not pleased. He said rather threateningly that 
you had better not count upon your expectations, 
and I have very little doubt that, in his hasty, 
angry way, he sat down and disinherited you forth- 
with.^’ 

I wonder,” said Sidney, ” what is your motive for 
telling me this.” 

” I want you to see that you have no case. Once 
the will has been admitted to probate, you will be 
liberally dealt with, as you know. You may say that 
you will be liberally dealt with in any event. Yes ; 
but will you not stand higher in the general esteem 
if you decline to take action and accept as a mere 
act of justice what many people will think that 
you might have had awarded to you in a Court of 
Law ? ” 

Sidney smiled disagreeably. ” You are very 
thoughtful,” he remarked ; ” it is a pity that you are 
not equally candid. I, for my part, feel at liberty, 
after what you have said, to express myself with entire 
candour and tell you that I quite understand why you 
are anxious to keep me and others away from the 
precincts of a Court of Law. I am sorry to have to 
put into words what we both know, but you leave 
me no alternative. My brother Jack was killed by 
his wife” .... 

” That,” interrupted Tristram, ” is a lie.” 

Please keep your temper and let me finish. Nobody 
else could have killed him or did kill him. You are 
afraid, as I am, that if she has to give evidence, she 
will betray herself and the police will move. Conse- 
quently, you wish to place me in the invidious position 


266 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


of a suppliant for alms, and you think you can do that 
by informing me that Jack was in effect unduly influ- 
enced by you. So far from my having no case, I have 
now, thanks to your peculiar methods, a considerably 
stronger one. Furthermore, you have removed the 
inclination towards forbearance which had no small 
weight with me. You mean well, Rolfe — that is, you 
mean well to Blanche, assuredly not to your humble 
servant — ^but I can’t congratulate you upon your 
diplomacy.” 

Tristram could not congratulate himself. He saw 
now that he would have done more wisely to refrain 
from avowing himself Sidney’s opponent and to have 
insisted simply upon Jack’s sanity. However, he tried 
again. 

” I set aside your monstrous accusation,” said he ; 

* ‘ it would be an insult to your sister-in-law to defend 
her. The question is not whether a given will is just 
or unjust, but whether it is sound. It will hardly help 
you to show that the testator was set against you by 
a disinterested person.” 

” The question for you,” returned Sidney, ” is not 
whether I win or lose my case, but whether you can 
save a lady in whom you are — shall we say affection- 
ately interested ? — from criminal prosecution. All 
things considered, you cannot look for my assistance in 
solving it.” 

” So,” said Tristram, getting up and firing his last 
shot, ” you are resolved upon proceeding to extrem- 
ities without any regard for the feelings of the 
Stanfields.” 

Sidney nodded, ” The one jnember of that family 


A HIT AND A MISS 267 

whose feelings are of importance to me,” he replied, 
happens to be in favour of my proceeding to what 
you call extremities/' 

As this was true, Tristram’s shot failed to find its 
mark, and he had no other left in his locker. 


CHAPTER XXII 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 

It was Sidney’s concluding observation that told 
Tristram where he had gone wrong. The danger of 
relying upon a sedulously acquired knowledge of 
human nature and insight into individual psychology 
is that it is apt to lead to neglect of minor details. 
Tristram, who had long taken Sidney Maddison’s 
measure, had reasoned, not without plausibility, that 
he would be able to carry his point, which was the 
abandonment of legal proceedings, by showing that 
these had little or no chance of success. Sidney, he 
knew, was bent upon two ends, one of which he would 
undoubtedly secure. He would get the estate whether 
he gained or lost his suit ; but he would lose Kitty, 
(he did not know that he had lost her in any case), if 
in the course of that suit he should wear the appearance 
of laying her sister open to trial for murder. There- 
fore, although he might not relish becoming, as he had 
phrased it, ''a suppliant for alms,” he would put up 
with that, as involving, upon the whole, less risk than 
the alternative. And so, perhaps, he would have done, 
but for the trifling circumstances, which Tristram 
had overlooked, that Kitty had pronounced him fully 
justified in contesting the will and that she had like- 
203 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 269 

wise taken it for granted that self-respect would forbid 
him to receive a gift. To assert his claim and be 
defeated would do him no injury with her, while 
subsequent acceptance of what would be forced upon 
him might fairly be represented as no more than the 
result of recognition of his rights by a sister-in-law 
against whom he personally would be careful to bring 
no allegation. So he stood to win on those lines. 
Kitty, it was true, was safe ; but Blanche, alas ! 
remained in imminent peril. The outcome of all 
which was that Tristram had no appetite for his 
solitary dinner. 

He was musing lugubriously upon the tiresome 
little intricacies of life when he was informed that 
Mrs. Maddison’s maid would like to speak to him, if 
he was disengaged, and presently Anne Pritchard was 
introduced, a dark, angular figure in the waning 
light. 

'' Good evening, Anne/' said Tristram. “Is it a 
message from your mistress ? ” 

“ No, sir," answered the old woman rather huskily, 
“ Pve come here on my own, as they say." 

Tristram asked her to sit down ; but, before comply- 
ing, she stole to the door and opened a chink of it to 
satisfy herself that no servant was hovering near 
the keyhole. 

“ What I've come to say is only for your hearing, 
sir," she explained. And then : “ God knows I don't 
want to say it ; but things has gone that far that 
you've got to be told." 

This exordium gave Tristram a cold shiver of appre- 
hension. Was the woman going to tell him something 


270 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


that he must on no account be told ? He held up his 
hand quickly to check her. 

If you have any information to give me in con- 
nection with Mr. Maddison’s death, for Heaven's sake 
ask yourself before you say another word whether 
you had not very much better hold your tongue." 

Anne turned upon him in swift wrath. “ Do you 
think .... oh, I know well enough what you think, 
and God forgive you for having such thoughts ! You 
that should have known, if nobody else did, that my 
poor dear child is as innocent this day as she's been 
all her unhappy life long ! " 

I do know it, Anne," Tristram declared, (though 
he felt as if a loaded pistol had been knocked aside from 
his head) ; ''I have never doubted it." 

“ So you say," retorted Anne, in no wise placated ; 
“ but you said very different to her, and it's just about 
broke her heart ! Wanted her to swear she hadn’t 
poisoned that brute, did you ? Likely she’d answer a 
question that let her see pretty plainly what you 
believed ! ’’ 

'' I did wrong," Tristram penitently confessed, and 
I am very sorry. Not for a moment did I believe her 
guilty ; only the evidence 

Yes, yes," interrupted Anne, the evidence was 
dead against her. Somehow I didn’t make that out 
at the time, and afterwards — ^well, as I’m here to tell 
the whole truth, I was afraid to speak. Cowardice 
you’ll call it, and cowardice it was. Not as I fear 
death, but I come of decent folk as have always kept 
theirselves respectable, and — and I didn’t want to end 
on the gallows." 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 271 

This, then, was the answer to the riddle ! Tris- 
tram's first thought was that he had been singularly 
stupid to miss guessing it ; his second was one of deep 
compassion for the unfortunate old woman who sat 
close to him, knitting her fingers nervously. 

“ My poor Anne," he exclaimed, what made you 
do it ? " 

I'm not saying," answered Anne, " but what I 
might have done it to rid her of him, for he was wear- 
ing the life out of her, and if ever a man deserved to 
be put away, he did. As it was — ^you may credit me 
or no as you please — I didn't mean no more than to 
give him the extra strong dose he was begging for." 

I am sure you didn't. But oh, why didn't you say 
this before ? " 

‘‘I've told you why, sir. I got frightened, and I 
didn't think there was no danger for her." 

Tristram groaned. “ It's a thousand pities ! How 
and when did you contrive to " . . . . 

“ If you please, sir. I'll tell you the whole story 
from beginning to end. The night he died I had got 
my poor dear to go to bed, and I wasn't for having 
her disturbed again if I could help it ; so after a bit 
I crept down to the door of his room to listen in case 
he should wake up and be took bad. Jarvis had gone 
out. I haven't never let on as I knew that, not 
wishing to make trouble for him, but I was looking 
out of window and I seen him slip off through the 
area gate. Must have reckoned he wouldn't be 
wanted for an hour or so. Any way, he wouldn't 
have been much use if he had been there— rather the 
contrary. All the same, I was going to tell him what 


272 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

I thought of him when he come in ; so I sat down 
in the dressing-room to wait, and I was dropping off 
to sleep in my chair when I heard a moaning next 
door. I was up and in the bedroom double quick, 
for I knew he’d start hollering in another minute^ 
and, sure enough, as soon as he clapped eyes on me 
he called out, ‘ Go and get your mistress, I must 
have the morphia again ! She’s tricked me with it 
once,’ he says, ‘ but she don’t trick me a second 
time.’ And then a lot of bad language, same as usual. 
‘ Now look here,’ I says to him, ‘ you lie still. The 
mistress won’t give you the stuff, nor yet she won’t 
let me give it you without she has the doctor’s leave,’ 
I says, * but I’ll run and get it for you if you’ll keep 
quiet.’ You see, it was only a question of whether 
I could get the bottle out of the hanging cupboard 
where she kept it without waking her, and soon that 
wasn’t a question any more. I slipped off my shoes, 
tiptoed into her room and was away with the bottle 
and needle in no time. She’d been fair worn out> 
poor dear, and she was sleeping like an infant. Well, 
maybe it’s true to say that I didn’t care whether I 
killed the man or not. ' Give it me strong,’ he kept 
muttering, and strong I give it him. ‘ Now,’ thinks I 
to myself, * we shan’t have no more yelling nor blas- 
phemy tonight.’ I waited till he was unconscious ; 
then I took back the bottle and the needle, and the 
mistress never stirred, bless her ! Next morning 
Jarvis told me it was all over, and I won’t say I was 
sorry.” 

And you have kept this to yourself until now ! ” 
exclaimed Tristram. 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 273 

Anne gave an assenting nod. It was speak at 
once or for ever hold my peace,” she answered. 

I didn’t have the nerve to speak at once, nor I 
hadn’t the wit to see who would have the blame 
cast upon her, if anybody was going to be blamed — 
which I didn’t expect, mind you. Even when that 
old bully of a Coroner upset me the way he did I 
couldn’t believe as there was danger for her. But 
danger there was and is, and these last days it’s been 
too much for me.” 

You have told Mrs. Maddison ? ” said Tristram, 
with scarcely an interrogative inflection, so persuaded 
was he that he now held the key to Blanche’s strange 
reticence. 

'' I have not, sir,” was Anne’s unexpected reply. 

Hasn’t she troubles enough without me adding to 
them ? Her belief is that he died natural, and what 
I say is, let her go on believing it. No, I haven't told 
her nothing, nor I won’t neither ! ” 

I am afraid you must,” said Tristram. “ You 
recognise that she is in danger.” 

“ Danger, yes ; but not what you’re thinking of. 
Judges and juries aren’t born fools ; I’ve no fear but 
what they’d acquit an innocent like her. But there’s 
one as hasn’t acquitted her, say what you will, and 
that’s yourself. Now maybe you understand what 
brought me here.” 

He was very far from understanding. He remained 
bewildered, despite the old woman’s ejaculation of, 
” Oh, haven’t you found out in all these years that 
she cares more for you than for all the judges and 
juries in the land ! ” It came to him with a poignant 
18 


274 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


twinge of remorse that he had indeed appeared to 
doubt Blanche ; but that did not strike him as being 
the main point at issue, and he had no more relevant 
rejoinder to make than — 

“ I have acknowledged that I was clumsy and that 
I am sorry. Never mind me. We have to think of 
her.’' 

And who do you suppose I’m thinking of ? Not 
of you, Mr. Rolfe, for you’ve tried my patience that 
far and that often I could see her break with you 
once for all and say it served yoU right ; only ” . . . . 

Anne’s voice faltered on a sudden ; but she resumed : 
“ Only I know she couldn’t break with you and not 
break her poor heart by the same stroke. There ! — 
I believe you love her true and have done this many 
a year, same as she’s loved you, and, though you 
mayn’t deserve what you got, I can’t bear lor you 
and her to be parted just when you might marry and 
be happy at long last.” 

“ Anne, Anne,” stammered Tristram, ” what are 
you saying ? ” 

” God’s truth, you foolish man ! Oh, what a foolish 
man you are, Mr. Rolfe, for all your book-learning ! 
Why, when you was both children, so to speak, any- 
body with half an eye could have told how things was 
between you, and she never was one to change. Why 
did you leave her and leave the country without so 
much as a word of goodbye ? Yes, I’ll allow you had 
your reasons for that ; but when you was back in 
England and was making money and a name for your- 
self, yet never come nigh her, what was she to think ? ” 

Tristram’s only response was an inarticulate murmur. 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAV 275 

Amazed joy, incredulity and bitter regret, contending 
against one another, overwhelmed him and left him 
dumb. Had his life, then, been a long, senseless 
blunder ? 

So she took and married that Maddison,'* Anne 
went on. Her father and mother wished it, and 
Twas all one to her, as you may say. She couldn't 
believe you cared for her, nor she don't believe it now. 
Small wonder ! You haven't never deceived me, 
neither of you ; but, with her a married woman, 'twas 
best you should go on deceiving of yourselves. More 
than once or twice I could have laughed at you both 
if I hadn't had to cry." 

" Never since we became friends," said Tristram, 
recovering his voice, " have I had the faintest hint of 
anything beyond friendship from her." 

" Nor given her none. Oh, you've been clever 
enough at taking one another in, and maybe you'd 
have been worse off if the truth had come out. You've 
been a good friend to her, I'll say that — a good friend 
until now. Who could have expected you to fail her 
just when she most needs you ! " 

" You do me an injustice, Anne," Tristram protested. 
" I have never failed her and never shall. What I 
have heard from you was not needed to convince me 
that she could have had nothing to do with her hus- 
band's death, and now, thank God, that much can be 
established. But — what is to be done for you ? " 

He was dismayed when he heard what Anne im- 
agined could be done for herself. To Anne the one 
indispensable thing was that her beloved mistress 
should be made happy at last, and that end was to 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


276 

be attained by Tristram's simply going to her and 
telling her that he held incontrovertible proof of her 
innocence. No need to distress her by disclosing the 
nature of the proof. 

She’s that tender-hearted, sir, she’d refuse to take 
advantage of it. So long as you don’t doubt her, she’ll 
be content. I shouldn’t wish nobody but you to 
know what really happened.” 

Tristram was obliged to tell the poor old woman 
that her plan was impracticable. ” I hope and believe, 
my dear Anne, that confession will have no grave con- 
sequences for you ; but confession I am afraid there 
must be. We can’t leave Mrs. Maddison under a 
suspicion which acquittal by a jury would not remove. 
If you had spoken out at the inquest, all would have 
been well. As it is, we have no choice but to make 
the truth public.” 

” Very good, sir,” was Anne’s brief reply. 

” In all sincerity affd honesty,” Tristram resumed, 
” I don’t think you have much to dread except the 
trial to which we mUst make up our minds. Certainly 
you will be blamed ; but it is not at all likely that you 
will be punished or that your account of the affair 
will be disbelieved.” 

Anne shook her head. ” They’ll want to know 
why I perjured myself at the inquest,” she not un- 
naturally objected, ” and they won’t see why a liar 
should be telling them the truth. Oh, they’ll hang 
me for sure — or would if they was to get the chance. 
Which they won’t.” 

” We cannot stifle inquiry,” said Tristram firmly. 

Anne dived into her pocket, drew forth a folded 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 277 

paper and handed it to him. I was hoping you 
wouldn't look at it that way, sir," was her reply, " but 
I reckoned as you might, so I took and wrote down all 
what I've been telling you. It's signed quite regular, 
in the presence of witnesses who didn’t see nothing 
but my signature, and it’ll give you the proof you’ll 
want after I'm gone." 

" Gone where ? " Tristram asked. " You aren't 
meditating an5rthing so fatal as flight, I hope." 

Anne pointed through the open window at the 
darkening surface of the river. " That’s my place," 
she answered. " I'm an old woman and I’d as lief 
die now as a year or two hence. Only I won't never 
have it said that Anne Pritchard died at the hang- 
man's hands." 

She was really in earnest. Tristram, who began by 
laughing at her and scolding her, soon had to take up 
a more serious tone and point out that suicide in 
order to cheat the hangman provides no avenue of 
escape from disgrace. On the contrary, it would 
inevitably be construed as an avowal of deliberate 
guilt, whereas admission of the actual facts would 
at least command that measure of credibility which 
attaches to a voluntary statement. His representa- 
tions failed to move his hearer, who rejoined : 

" I’m not complaining, sir. Maybe, you've decided 
right, and 'twas for you to decide. All I say is I’d 
sooner drown than be tried for my life with all the 
evidence clean against me." 

" Be sure, Anne," said Tristram, '' that you will 
neither drown nor hang. What you have in front of 
you is a disagreeable experience ; I won't pretend to 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


278 

call it anything else. Nevertheless, it will pass and 
be forgotten sooner than you think for. I am truly 
sorry for you and I would spare you if I could ; but is 
it not self-evident that I could not speak of proof to 
your mistress without her insisting upon hearing what 
the proof was ? ” 

Anne admitted, with a sigh, that there was some- 
thing in that. “ Not but what she'll want to have it 
kept dark, poor dear ! I know her." 

" She may. For her own sake, though — and in- 
deed for yours into the bargain — it must not be kept 
dark. Meanwhile, Anne, I am going to take the liberty 
of seeing you safely home." 

" Thank you, sir, but you’ve no call," answered 
Anne, rising. " I’ll think over what you’ve said, and 
I’ll promise not to jump into the river, if that’s all. 
I suppose it’s true that putting an end to myself would 
be much the same thing as pleading guilty in the 
dock." 

" Not a doubt of it. Pluck up courage, old friend, 
and believe me that better times are in store for us all." 

Tristram took Anne’s wrinkled hand, patted it and 
was glad to see her smile. 

" And she won’t give up everything to that there 
Sidney, will she, sir ? ’’ the old woman anxiously 
asked. 

" Oh, I don’t know," answered Tristram, laughing, 
" and I certainly don’t care. She will do as she 
pleases. Nobody can put any misconstruction upon 
her doings now, thank Heaven ! ’’ 

So Anne went away, apparently somewhat com- 
forted. Her position, it had to be owned, was not as 


ANNE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY 279 

exempt from peril as could have been wished ; still 
it was unlikely that she would be pronounced guilty 
of anything worse than culpable negligence, and Tris- 
tram was perhaps pardonable if, when left alone, he 
gave less thought to her plight than to the vision of 
undreamt-of happiness which she had thrown open to 
him. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 

Sidney Maddison, after the discomfited Tristram had 
left him, could rub his hands. It had been a matter 
of doubt with him whether he should contest his late 
brother’s will or not ; but now Rolfe by his singularly 
maladroit appeal had not only supplied him with ad- 
ditional ground for disputing it but with an excellent 
pretext for magnanimous withdrawal, should that 
course seem the more expedient. Rolfe knew and 
the Stanfields knew that Blanche had killed her hus- 
band. They were in mortal terror of publicity and 
would consequently be as grateful to him as they 
ought to be if, for her sake, he declined to move. The 
transfer of the estate, or the larger part of it, to him 
would be an arrangement to which he would only agree 
at their instance and which they would see themselves 
bound to urge upon him. All things considered, he 
inclined towards that solution, as being less hazardous 
than the other. Kitty was the one uncertain quantity. 
Kitty had explicitly declared that he could not honour- 
ably assent to such a solution, and Kitty — there was 
no room for self-deception about that — would snatch 
with alacrity at any plea for throwing him over. Well, 
she must be induced to change her point of view. 

280 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 281 


The difficulty, of course, would not consist so much in 
showing her that her point of view was unwarrantable 
as in depriving her of a subterfuge which would answer 
her purpose as well as another ; still he thought he 
was clever enough and strong enough to bind her 
to her pledge. The best plan would be to run down 
to Marling and have another talk with her, and he 
might avail himself of the same opportunity to come 
to terms with her parents. Her parents, indeed, not- 
withstanding their hostile attitude, were in all proba- 
bility anxious to conciliate him. 

Any hesitation that he may have felt as to intruding 
upon them without having been asked was disposed 
of for him the next morning by the receipt of a post- 
card from Kitty herself. I should be glad if you 
could manage to come here tomorrow afternoon, as 
I wish to see you again. K.’' Hardly the kind of 
missive one would like or expect to get from one's 
affianced bride ; but if the form of it gave Sidney a 
pang, its substance was not unsatisfactory. He tele- 
graphed in reply that he would arrive by the 4.30 
train ; after which he fell to wondering what she 
thought of her poetaster now. Sidney was not one 
of those lovers who idealise the objects of their love. 
He knew that Kitty, like the rest of the world, had 
her weaknesses ; he knew that she was a worshipper 
of achievement and success. Surely, if she had seen 
that review — and she was pretty sure to have seen it 
— she would realise that Claude Hadow was a poor 
sort of creature ! She had had a fancy for a good- 
looking youth ; but she would not be able to help 
holding him cheap after he had_^so deplorably failed, 


282 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


not only in his first duty as a soldier, but even in the 
less attractive part of a candidate for literary laurels. 
There was little likelihood, however, of her making 
any reference to Claude Hadow in the forthcoming 
interview. 

Unlikely things frequently come to pass and seldom 
succeed in astonishing so experienced a man of the 
world as Sidney Maddison. Nevertheless it did sur- 
prise him to descry Kitty awaiting him on the platform 
when his train drew up at the riverside station, and he 
asked himself whether so unwonted a compliment 
was a good or a bad sign. Her unsmiling face did 
not look like a very good one. 

'' I thought you would not mind my coming to meet 
you,” said she, as he stepped out and took her hand. 

” Mind ? But it is charming of you ! ” he exclaimed, 
pressing her fingers, which she rather quickly with- 
drew. 

” I did not mean to be charming,” she answered ; 
” I only wanted to walk up to the house with you 
alone, so as to be able to speak to you without being 
interrupted.” 

He said he must persist in calling it charming of 
her to have anticipated his own wish ; whereupon she 
inquired whether he had anything particular to say 
to her. 

” Yes,” he replied ; ” but perhaps 1 had better let 
you begin, as it was you who sent for me. I should 
have come, though, without waiting to be called, for 
I am sure we both felt that our last conversation left 
the subject a good deal in the air.” 

” Oh, that subject 1 ” was her odd rejoinder. 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 283 

She did not comply with his request until they were 
clear of the precincts of the station and he was limping 
beside her along a shady lane, when she turned upon 
him somewhat sharply with — 

I didn't know that we had left anything in the 
air. I understood that you couldn't see your way 
to avoid going to law." 

"Did I say that ? I remember saying that I was 
most anxious to avoid giving your sister pain, and I 
needn’t tell you that what I am above all things 
anxious to avoid in this or any other imaginable 
instance is displeasing you. I am afraid you are 
nat pleased. Something is amiss. May I not hear 
what it is ? " 

" Things have happened since we last met," answered 
Kitty slowly. 

" And perhaps I have unintentionally given you 
offence ? I have certainly been so unfortunate as to 
incur the animosity of Rolfe, who came to see me 
yesterday." 

" Ah 1 " cried Kitty, looking up, " I can believe 
that. He gave you his reasons, no doubt." 

" I can’t say that he did ; though his reasons were 
not very far to seek. Rolfe is such an ardent cham- 
pion of your sister’s that he must needs make me 
out her enemy because .... But never mind him ; I 
don’t mind him or his animosity in the least. He 
came to me, as I suppose you are aware, in the char- 
acter of an ambassador, and he wanted me to promise 
that I would drop all opposition to my brother’s will. 
Of course he represented that I should be well-advised 
to do so, in view of your sister’s intention to make 


284 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


full restitution. I gave him what seemed to me to be 
the sole possible reply, namely that I must decline to 
take as an act of generosity what I considered myself 
entitled to claim as a right. But although I could 
use no other language to a man who approached me 
in the spirit that he did, let me say now that I am 
entirely willing, as I have been all along, to do what- 
ever you desire. If, upon fuller consideration, you 
think”. . . . 

” You have been told what I think,” interrupted 
Kitty ; ” I haven't changed my mind. If Tristram 
Rolfe looked you up yesterday, I am sure it was not 
as an ambassador from me.” 

” Well, an ambassador from the family, let us say. 
He didn’t exhibit his credentials, perhaps he had 
none ; but I presume he felt authorised. So, in a 
sense, he was. As I told him, I could understand 
that he meant well to you all, though his intentions 
were not over friendly to me.” 

” And he had no other crow to pluck with 
you ? ” 

” He didn’t mention any other.” 

Then I can’t imagine why he went near you. When 
I said just now that things had happened since our 
last meeting, I meant that since then I have heard 
something which I vowed that I wouldn’t believe until 
you yourself had admitted that it was true. I said 
that to Tristram Rolfe; but, whether you admit it 
or not, I can’t any longer doubt that you were 
the author of that vile and dastardly attack upon 
Mr. Hadow’s poems.” 

Sidney’s peculiar qualities were never seen to greater 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 285 

advantage than when he found himself cornered. “ I 
am sorry/' said he, " that you should think such 
epithets applicable to a critique which, if it had to be 
caustic, was at any rate honest, and still more sorry 
that you should suppose me capable of denying that 
I had written it. I will not affect to be sorry for 
having written it. The stuff was trash, and I was 
bound, as a conscientious critic, to call it trash." 

After you had complimented him upon it, after 
you had encouraged him to publish it, and after you 
had actually found a publisher for him ? " 

" Alas ! yes. One's inclination is always to encour- 
age budding talent, or what may have a false air of 
talent. One reads this or that attempt and says to 
oneself that really, after all, it isn’t so bad. In one’s 
private capacity it is easy and pleasant to hope for 
the best on insufficient grounds ; but the moment 
that one is called upon to act in one’s public and 
critical capacity there is no place left for good nature. 
A surgeon who is your private friend will be pretty 
sure to take a favourable view of your symptoms ; 
but consult him professionally and you will get no 
misplaced mercy from him. He has a duty to perform 
and he performs it." 

Kitty with a quick wave of her hand brushed that 
defence aside. "As if anything compelled you to 
review the book at all ! But I don’t believe one word 
of what you have been saying. I don’t believe that 
you thought those poems trash ; I believe that you 
thought them very good and that that was just why 
you held them up to ridicule. Of course you are 
clever enough to make anything you choose look 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


m 

ridiculous. Your object, in short, was to hurt and 
ruin the writer, upon whom you had thrust your 
treacherous friendship. Wasn’t it enough, then, to 
have traduced him to me by insinuating that he had 
no heart for a fight ? ” 

** Your partisanship makes you a little unfair,” 
said Sidney. “ I insinuated nothing against your friend. 
It was you yourself, if you remember, who mentioned 
to me his confession that he was not a fighting man. 
Assuredly he is not, and if he is rather short of 
courage” .... 

” He is not short of courage 1 He has been given 
orders to go back to the Army and he is going at once. 
Now then ! ” 

” My sincere congratulations to him and to the 
Army.” 

” I don’t think you are ever sincere. Not even 
when you are derisive ; though perhaps that is your 
nearest approach to sincerity.” 

Sidney stood still, leaning upon his stick. “ At 
least, Kitty,” said he, ” you must allow that my love 
for you is sincere. Take the worst possible view of 
me ; put it, if you like, that I wrote that article of 
malice prepense and for the sake of injuring a man 
whom I should have considered beneath notice if he 
had not crossed my path. Don’t you think that my 
love for you may have been some extenuation ? I 
have never set up for being a saint ; I did — I won’t 
deny it — wish you to see that poor little specimen of 
humanity as I see him and as he is. And, since you 
speak of sincerity, have you been so sincere with me ? 
What of that afternoon when I came upon you holding 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 287 

hands with him and when I saw, if I did not actually 
hear, you own that you loved him ? ” 

** You have no right to say that. It is quite untrue.” 

“ Is it ? If you tell me that it is, I will accept 
your word. Yet you evidently called me here today 
in order to quarrel with me. So be it. You are at 
liberty to break faith with me, and — and I love you 
too dearly to reproach you. That, at least, is true, 
and you know it, Kitty. Only let us have no shallow 
pretences. You will not persuade me that I am cast 
aside for any other cause than that you were deter- 
mined to seize the first excuse that came to your hand.” 

Kitty had entered upon a contest from which she 
could hardly hope to emerge scathless, though it was 
taking a rather more disagreeable shape than she 
had expected. However, she received her adversary’s 
thrust unflinchingly. 

” I won’t contradict you,” she answered. ” I did 
wrong when I promised to marry you without loving 
you, and I daresay I ought to have told you before 
this that I repented of my promise. Nevertheless, I 
believe I should have kept it if you had been what I 
thought you were. But you are not. No gentleman 
and no decent man could possibly have acted as you 
have done. You pretend not to be ashamed ; all I 
can say is that I am ashamed of having understood 
you so little.” 

” In other words, the excuse must serve.” 

” It is not an excuse ; it is an absolute and final 
reason.” 

Reason or pretext, its finality was not to be gainsaid. 
Sidney had calculated upon the girl’s pride to pin her 


288 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


down to her plighted word, and behold ! her pride 
did not come into play. She had made a mistake 
which she meant to rectify. The episode by means of 
which alleged enlightenment had been brought home 
to her stood for what it might be worth ; it had 
sufficed to enlighten her and to free her from com- 
punction. There was nothing left to appeal to ; 
for a hint that it might be dangerous to scorn the 
arbiter of her sister’s fate would incense but scarcely 
appease her. Sidney’s achievement of a compulsory 
retreat lacked neither dignity nor dexterity. 

'' As I reminded you just now,” said he, ” you are 
free to put an end to our engagement. I won’t try to 
justify myself ; you wouldn’t care to listen. My love 
never deserved yours and never won it ; that is 
enough.” 

” Quite enough,” agreed Kitty, a little defiantly. 

“Yes. I thought that your father and mother 
might wish to see me ; but probably, under the cir- 
cumstances, they would rather not ; so I won’t intrude 
upon them. Will you please tell them from me that 
they need not fear my taking any action to embarrass 
them ? Now that you are lost to me, I care very little 
about vindicating my rights, and they may rely in 
advance upon my assent to such a settlement of our 
difficulties as may approve itself to them.” 

He raised his hat, turned and hobbled off towards 
the station, leaving, it must be confessed, a wholly 
unmoved and unabashed lady in possession of the 
field. Kitty could not compassionate a man who had 
brought his punishment upon himself and who had 
added to his turpitude by a brazen avowal that he had 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 289 

deliberately intended to lower her opinion of Claude 
Hadow. With a light step and a light heart she 
mounted the hill towards Marling, and perhaps the 
sight of Claude resting his elbows upon the garden 
gate did not altogether take her by surprise. 

" Well,'' she announced, “ the deed is done, and 
there was no trouble to speak of. He denied nothing ; 
he didn't even complain that he was being scurvily 
treated. I suppose he felt that it would be useless." 

Claude held the gate open while she passed through 
it. “You know," said he, “ I'm rather sorry for him." 

“ I was sure you would be. So like you to be sorry 
for the undeserving ! I daresay you wouldn't have 
been a bit sorry for me if I had allowed him to keep 
me in bondage." 

“ Oh, but of course I knew that he couldn't do 
that. From the moment you told me that you had 
done with him and that you had never really cared 
for him all was over, and I'm glad he didn't upbraid 
you. Only I've a sort of guilty feeling that I was 
the humble cause of his being chucked." 

“You were ; and if you knew how deeply indebted 
I am to you, you wouldn't be so apologetic about it. 
At least, I hope you wouldn't, but the workings of 
your mind are inscrutable. Breathes there another 
mortal who would not only pardon a false friend for 
stabbing him in the back but look askance at a true 
one when she calls such villainy unpardonable ! " 

“ He has brought me a true one anyhow," said 
Claude, with a contented laugh, “ which is a great deal 
more than enough to atone for his having written 
me down an ass." 

19 


ago 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


The odd thing was that the young fellow really meant 
what he said. Kitty’s frank and contrite acknow- 
ledgment that she had misjudged him, as well as her 
fiery indignation at the mean assault which had been 
made upon his poetical effort, had given him, he 
gratefully recognised, the utmost that she had it in 
her power to bestow, and, as he had nursed no illu- 
sions, he suffered no disappointment. During the 
hour that she and he had spent together since his 
arrival at Marling she had dealt with him as one good 
friend deals with another, going even so far as to con- 
fide to him what she had not told her parents, that 
she was resolved to break definitely with Sidney 
Maddison. That she had abstained from any refer- 
ence to a declaration wrung from him in a moment of 
anguish was only a further proof of friendship to 
which he was not insensible. The very ardour with 
which she had espoused his cause as against his de- 
tractor would have been evidence, if evidence had 
been needed, that the affection which she felt for him 
was of a sisterly order. It could not be otherwise, 
and he was far from repining. He might, it was 
true, have found it rather difficult to acquiesce in 
sisterly affection as a substitute for love if he had been 
condemned to stay in England ; but he was about to 
fight England’s battles in France or Belgium, which 
made all the difference. 

** The workings of your mind,” Kitty presently re- 
sumed, ” are past finding out by a simple person like 
me. It’s well enough not to be cast down by a first 
failure— because, think what we will of him, that 
spiteful wretch has managed to turn your book into a 


SOME PEOPLE GET THEIR DESERTS 291 

failure — but I do protest against your habit of taking 
everything that happens to you as if it couldn't be 
helped and there was no more to be said about it. A 
man shouldn't let things happen to him, he should 
make them happen." 

" Which is another way of intimating that you 
can't look upon me as a manly man." 

" No, it isn't ; you have shown me in more ways 
than one what you are, and really it's rather fine. 
Only you push the virtue of modesty to such lengths 
that it threatens to degenerate into a vice. Why, 
oh, why don't you insist upon having your way ? 
It wouldn't be so difficult." 

" My way ? But I have got it. I return to the 
regiment, I can hold up my head again, you don't 
fear any longer that you may have to be ashamed for 
me. I daresay, if I live, I shall write more verses, and 
I shouldn't wonder if I were to improve, after the 
castigation that hasn't crushed me." 

" And is there really nothing else that you 
want ? " 

" Nothing attainable." 

Kitty sighed. " I see," said she, " that you won't 
be satisfied until you have put me to open humilia- 
tion. Well, perhaps I deserve it. Be that as it may, 
I can't let you go off to the war and — and, oh dear I 
possibly to death without . . . 

" Without what ? " he gasped breathlessly. 

“ Without telling you something that anybody in 
the world but you would have guessed before this." 

About an hour later Mrs. Stanfield, surveying two 
radiant young people who had just told her some- 


292 THE OBSTINATE LADY 

thing which she had not been far from guessing, 
remarked : 

'' Of course you are a pair of geese and it’s like your 
cheek to talk of marrying upon a pittance. Don't ask 
me to approve — much you care for my approval ! 
Still I can’t refuse you my blessing, since you have rid 
us of Sidney Maddison ! ” 


CHAPTER XXIV 


DE MORTUIS 

In the midst of his newly found bliss Tristram Rolfe 
could not help experiencing a touch of the crestfallen 
self-derision that galls an adept who has been out- 
witted at his own trade. There was not a trait in 
Blanche Maddison*s character nor a turn of feature 
or gesture habitual to her with which he was not in- 
timately acquainted ; if he had analysed any woman in 
the world (and quite a large number had revealed them- 
selves to his patient scrutiny), he had analysed her, and 
if there was one thing connected with her to which 
he could have taken his oath, it was that she had never 
come within imaginable range of loving him. To be 
sure, you have only to treat a false premiss as estab- 
lished in order to render all your inductions and 
deductions void ; but he had been so certain of his 
premiss ! He had been so certain of it that the possi- 
bility of her having — very excusably — accepted a pre- 
miss just as false had not once crossed his mind, visible 
though it had been to a simple and unobservant old 
woman. However, he had to recognise what a good 
thing it was that neither Blanche nor he had had a 
glimmering of the truth. They had not been clever, 
on the contrary, they had been well-nigh abnormally 
293 


294 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


stupid ; yet had one or the other of them possessed 
the insight which had been wanting to both, he or she 
could scarcely have handled a ticklish situation with 
greater dexterity. And now ! — well, now the impos- 
sible had come to pass ; dreams had transformed 
themselves into realities ; Blanche was free — free from 
Jack, free from an odious stigma with which she had 
been menaced, free to give and take what should 
have been given and taken in the old, irretrievable 
days. ** First and last,” reflected Tristram, ” I have 
been a most stupendous fool, but I don’t suppose that 
in all this foolish world there can be a happier one.” 

He was much too happy to sleep well or to spare 
more than a fleeting pang of pity to the bestower of 
his happiness. For Anne Pritchard, it was true, 
there were breakers ahead ; but they were by no 
means as formidable as she fancied, and, after some 
unavoidable buffeting, she would find her feet on the 
firm land once more. He had finished breakfast and 
was wondering at how early an hour he might ven- 
ture to set forth for Eaton Square when his servant 
came in to say that there was a telephone message for 
him from Mrs. Maddison. Would he please go and 
see her at once ? Wouldn’t he I Little did she know 
how impatient he was to respond to her call I Yet 
possibly she did know ; for Anne, now that she was 
resigned to publicity, would no longer have cared to 
keep her mistress in the dark. He rather liked to 
think, whilst he was speeding towards Belgravia in a 
taxi, that there would be no need for lengthy explana- 
tions when Blanche and he met. 

The butler who admitted him on his arrival looked 


DE MORTUIS 


295 

so portentously grave that he was upon the point of 
asking whether anything was wrong when he was 
anticipated by the man’s ejaculation of — 

“ This is a terrible business, sir ! ” 

** What is a terrible business ? ” Tristram inquired 
apprehensively ; though his swift imagination already 
half prepared him for what he was going to hear. 

“ Didn’t they tell you, sir ? Poor Miss Pritch- 
ard ” . 

Good Heavens ! — has anything happened to her ? ” 
Crushed to death at a station on the Underground 
last night, sir. Seems she stepped out before the train 
stopped, and whether she slipped or whether her 
skirts got caught they can’t say, but she was dragged 
down and the wheels went over her head. There’s 
some comfort in knowing that death must have been 
instantaneous ; but it’s an awful shock to Mrs. Maddi- 
son, as you’ll understand, sir.” 

It was perhaps a still more awful shock to Tristram, 
who could not attribute this catastrophe to accident 
and who was overwhelmed with remorse for his heed- 
lessness in having let a woman bent upon suicide out 
of his sight. He murmured such apposite words of 
horror and concern as came to him, without, of course, 
betraying his fears ; but he felt more like a criminal 
confronting his judge than the exultant lover that he 
had been a few short minutes before when he was 
shown into the drawingroom where Blanche sat wait- 
ing for him, white and wide-eyed. 

” Oh, my poor old Anne ! ” she cried, while he held 
her hand. 

** She didn’t suffer,” said Tristram, offering the sole 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


296 

consolation that he could think of ; '' try to be thank- 
ful for that. Who wouldn’t choose to have the thread 
of life snapped in a flash rather than waste away by 
slow degrees, as most of us must ? ” 

'‘Yes,” answered Blanche, with a shivering sigh, 
“ I could be glad that she was spared pain and sick- 
ness if — if . . . She paused for a moment and then 
went on resolutely, “ if I were not so horribly afraid 
that she may have purposely thrown herself under 
the train.” 

” Have you any reason to think that she did ? ” 
Tristram asked. 

Blanche sighed again. ” There is a reason,” she 
replied. ” I made up my mind to tell you about it, 
because it can’t matter now ; but if I do, you must 
promise me never to let anyone else hear a word of 
what I am going to say.” 

He understood instantly. ” Ah,” he returned, 
” then it is as I supposed ; you have known all along 
who brought about Jack’s end.” 

She made a hesitating motion of assent. ” I knew 
something that I didn’t tell,” she admitted. ” I 
couldn’t have told anybody — not even you — until 
now, and I shall never tell anybody but you. Only I 
don’t think there can be any harm in my letting you 
know that I am not — what you thought I was.” 

“ Don’t bring such a cruel accusation against me ! ” 
he pleaded. ‘‘Won’t you believe me when I assure 
you, upon my soul and honour, that I didn’t for a 
single instant suspect you of a crime ? What I saw 
was that you wouldn’t or couldn’t give me your whole 
confidence. It never occurred to me — why not I can’t 


DE MORTUIS 


297 

think, but as a fact it never did — that you might be 
screening our poor old Anne until she came to see me 
last night/' 

“ Oh — you saw her last night ? " 

“ Yes, I did. She said I had ' got to be told,' and 
I gathered that she would have told me sooner if she 
had not been obsessed by a fantastic notion that she 
was in danger of being executed for murder. She said 
— but I will give you her statement in her own words, 
as well as I can remember them." 

He did not give the whole of it, limiting himself to 
that part which had related to the administering of 
the fatal dose, and Blanche at once fastened upon the 
point which apparently struck her as cardinal. 

" So the poor old soul never meant to kill him ! 
Oh, how thankful I am ! " 

" Be sure that she did not mean to kill him. I wish 
I could feel as sure that she did not mean to kill 
herself. She threatened to throw herself into the 
river when I explained, as I had to do, that she must 
be prepared to take her trial ; but before she left me 
she had promised not to do that, and I foolishly let 
her go, instead of insisting upon seeing her home. 
You assumed that she was guilty, I suppose ? " 

"Not at the time. I was asleep when she took 
the bottle out of my room, but I woke to see her in the 
act of putting it back into the cupboard, and I didn't 
stir, not wishing to scold her for what had evidently 
been done. I concluded that Jack had called for 
more morphia and that she had decided to give it 
to him rather than disturb me. I didn't think that 
her having disobeyed orders would do much harm, if 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


298 

any ; it was only when she called me in the morning 
and told me he was dead that I became terrified for 
her. The dreadful thing was that she made no con- 
fession. I fully expected that she would ; but, as 
she didn't, it seemed to me only too certain that she 
must have acted deliberately. She knew — well, she 
knew what you knew about my wicked feelings, and 
she was devoted to me, heart and soul. I could 
hardly wonder at her having crazily resolved to do 
me what she might have considered the greatest of 
possible services." 

“ So the only question with you was how to save 
her ? " 

" It was the only question that signified. I didn't 
at the moment realise that keeping silence might mean 
risk to myself, and if I had, it would have made no 
difference. Naturally, what happened afterwards con- 
vinced me that I hadn't made any mistake. If she 
had fallen into one by giving an over-dose, she would 
have acknowledged it to the doctor and the Coroner. 
So, at least, one would have imagined. Unhappily, 
she must have taken up what you called just now a 
fantastic notion ; though perhaps, after all, it was 
not so very fantastic. Try to picture yourself in her 
place. Would you not have been strongly tempted 
to behave as she did ? " 

" I can't think that I should ; the consequences to 
you would have been too self-evident. For her, poor 
thing, the consequences have been tragic, and all the 
more so because they need not have been. It was not 
too late to tell the truth, as she herself perceived ; only 
I couldn't persuade her, though I hoped I had, that 


DE MORTUIS 


299 

the truth would be believed. Now, I am afraid, it is 
too late to preserve her memory from reproach.'' 

“ There will be no reproach upon her memory," 
said Blanche quickly. " Of course her death will be 
thought to have been due to an accident — as indeed 
it may have been." 

" It may ; I am as anxious as you can be to think 
that it was. But the circumstances, which can't be 
concealed " . . . . 

" The circumstances," interrupted Blanche, " will 
be concealed. They are only known to you and me, 
and if we made them public, as we shall not, we should 
probably be suspected of having invented them." 

" I think," said Tristram, " I ought to tell you that 
Anne gave me a written version of her story, which 
she had signed before witnesses." 

" Then I forbid you to make any use of it ! No 
doubt she went to you, instead of coming to me, be- 
cause she was sure that nothing would induce me to 
betray her." 

" Oddly enough, she fancied that I also should be 
willing and able to observe secrecy. No, she had 
another reason for seeking me out, a reason which will 
perhaps astonish you as much as it did me. It was 
not that she had any fear for your safety or your good 
name ; it was — shall I give you her own words ? — 
that she was afraid of your heart being broken by the 
supposed suspicions of — a man whom you loved." 

" Oh, no ! no ! " cried Blanche in angry dismay, 
" I don't believe it ! I don't believe Anne ever said 
that ! " 

" She did, though ; and what is more, I beheved 


300 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


her there and then. She said what she knew about 
me too, what she apparently knew all along and what 
I wouldn't for the world have had you know. The 
marvel is not so much her having discovered the one 
love of my life — anybody might have guessed it and 
I daresay many people did — as that you and I should 
have remained complacently blind all these years. 
Oh, Blanche, how successfully we have thrown dust 
in one another’s eyes from beginning to end ! ” 

Dust may be washed away by happy tears, and 
Blanche had to shed a few before her vision of the 
past grew clear. When it did — but that was not until 
half an hour had been devoted to questions of which 
the greater number answered themselves — she said, 
with a long sigh : 

“ I don’t know which of us ought to feel the most 
ashamed ; but really I think you ought. One word 
from you long ago, after that silence which I perfectly 
understood and loved you all the better for — one word 
would have been enough ! I waited and waited for 
it in vain. Oh, yes, I did know that you had cared 
once, but it seemed impossible that you could care 
any longer. So then I didn’t care either. I mean, I 
didn’t care what became of me. Jack Maddison was 
in love with me in those days, and I didn’t exactly 
dislike him. I had nothing to say against a match 
which was thought to be a good one for me.” 

” The difference between us,” remarked Tristram, 
” was that I didn’t know you had ever cared for me.” 
” Oh, but you ought to have known ! ” 

” Do you think so ? Well, to be honest, I had hopes ; 
but when the first I heard of you was that you were 


DE MORTUIS 


301 


going to be married, the absurdity of them became 
manifest. After your marriage, at any rate, it was 
best, as poor old Anne truly said, that we should go 
on deceiving ourselves and one another. Let us be 
very grateful to her for having undeceived us at last. 
I only wish we could show our gratitude by keeping 
her secret.'' 

'' Of course we can and shall do that. We have 
only to destroy her written confession." 

Tristram was obliged to demur. It might be down- 
right imperative upon him to produce the document ; 
it must in any event be eminently desirable for him 
to do so. Setting aside the possibility of criminal 
prosecution, how could he suffer a breath of suspicion 
to rest upon his love's fair fame ? Blanche, however, 
was sincerely disdainful of public opinion. 

" No doubt," said she, " a certain number of persons 
will always maintain that I killed my husband. Per- 
haps that is no more than a just punishment upon me 
for having wished to kill him. I don't mind what 
anybody, except you, thinks of me." 

“Not even your own people ? " 

“lam sure they acquit me. But even if they didn't, 
I could never give my poor old Anne away." 

“ It wouldn't be giving her away. She was not a 
murderess. Her assertion is that what she did was 
done unwittingly." 

“ But, you see, she denied that she had done any- 
thing at all. And this dreadful catastrophe, coming 
immediately after her confession to you — what chance 
would her story have of being accepted ? No, Tris- 
tram dear, I can't give way. The only person in the 


302 


THE OBSTINATE LADY 


world whom I should have liked to let into our secret, 
if it had been possible, is Kitty. I can't bear her to 
marry Sidney and I can't help fancying that she is 
a little afraid of him. He believes that I was the 
culprit, doesn't he ? " 

I was forgetting Kitty. Yes, Sidney believes you 
guilty ; he had the candour to tell me as much. But 
Kitty won’t marry him in order to close his lips. You 
will be relieved to hear that she isn't going to marry 
him for that or any other reason. I’ll tell you pre- 
sently how I was enabled to make an end of Sidney 
with her for ever." 

" Oh, I'm glad ! It will be rather a blow to him, 
I'm afraid, but that can't be helped. Wealth will give 
him some consolation perhaps." 

" As you say. You adhere to your intention of 
resigning everything to him, then ? " 

" Why not ? I should have done the same even if 
poor Jack hadn't made such an impossible will. 
Ought I to consult you now ? But you needn't answer. 
You wouldn't wish me to bring you Jack's money, 
would you ? " 

Tristram laughed. "No indeed ! The trouble 
is ... . But you know what the trouble is, and if 
you can disregard it, so can I. Only to one thing, 
Blanche, you must make up your mind : I am not 
going to destroy that written statement of Anne's. 
A contingency might arise which would leave me no 
choice but to produce it." 

" If I were to be tried for murder, you mean ? " 

He nodded. " I don’t expect that contingency to 
arise. My impression is that Sidney will allow us to 


DE MORTUIS 


303 


prove the will and will then assent to the transfer 
which will have the air of a measure of reparation ; 
but it isn’t only from Sidney that you are liable to 
attack, and to throw away your shield would be mad- 
ness.” 

Yes, I suppose you are right. You still think I am 
wrong, though, don’t you ? ” 

” I do. How often I have thought you wrong and 
told you so in the years that are past I But you have 
always been generously and lovably in the wrong.” 

” It is you who are generous and I who am — well, 
pig-headed. You consent to marry a woman who is, 
and wilfully insists upon continuing, under a cloud ; 
you let her have her whims and notions, though you 
can’t approve of them. Don’t think that I am blind 
to your generosity. But — I am what I am, and I 
love you as I have loved you ever since I was a girl. 
Will that do ? ” 

” I think,” answered Tristram, smiling, we shall 
be able to make it do.” 


THE END 


Ftinted by Haxell, Wat$on & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 







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